UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health names two Gillings Visiting Professors

James Merchant, MD, DrPH

Merchant was dean of the University of Iowa College of Public Health at until July 2008 and is a UNC alumnus. His UNC professorship will be based in the department of environmental sciences and engineering, working across the school as an adviser on leadership, rural health and injury prevention strategies. He will work with the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, the school’s service and outreach arm.

As a graduate student at UNC’s School of Public Health in the 1970s, Merchant studied the impact of byssinosis, a chronic respiratory condition commonly known as “brown lung disease” that affected many textile workers in North Carolina. An advocate of workplace safety and health, Merchant helped identify the risks of exposure to cotton dust. His work led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to establish the 1978 Cotton Dust Standard, which set limits for occupational exposure to cotton dust for workers in the textile industry and several other industries. The standard is credited with substantially reducing the number of brown lung cases in the state and nation.

Thomas C. Ricketts, PhD

Ricketts, a UNC professor of health policy and management, will use his professorship at L’École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique, which has campuses in Rennes and Paris, France. He will work to develop closer relationships with institutions in Europe. Goals include new opportunities for joint training, teaching and research projects for faculty and students working in France, the United States and Francophone parts of Africa.

Ricketts is deputy director for Policy at the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. His research focuses on the distribution of North Carolina’s health-care work force and its effect on access to care and the health status of North Carolinians.

The Gillings Visiting Professorship (GVP) is part of Carolina Public Health Solutions, a program established in the school to manage programs funded by a $50 million gift from Dennis and Joan Gillings.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, (919) 966-7467, ramona_dubose@unc.edu.