After seven and half years of dedicated service to the Yale School of Public Health, Dr. Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, will be joining the University of South Florida as dean of the USF Health College of Public Health effective January 1, 2025. The relocation also allows Dr. Vermund to be on-site as the newly elected president of the Global Virus Network, which recently moved its international headquarters to USF.
A former dean of YSPH (2017-2022) and the current Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health. Dr. Vermund also serves as a professor of pediatrics and a clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive services at the Yale School of Medicine, and is an internationally recognized infectious disease epidemiologist focused on diseases in resource-limited settings, especially HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (HPV), and parasitic diseases.
Dr. Vermund's tenure as YSPH dean was marked by several historic gains. Under his leadership, YSPH experienced its largest jump in the U.S. News & World Report rankings in more than a decade. Dr. Vermund established the school’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, expanded the Office of Public Health Practice, was instrumental in developing the Yale Institute for Global Health in collaboration with the schools of nursing and medicine, and introduced YSPH’s widely popular Executive MPH degree program. His deanship was further notable for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, both within and outside of Yale. And it was under Dr. Vermund's stewardship that former Yale University President Peter Salovey, Provost Scott Strobel, and YSM Dean Nancy Brown announced our historic transition towards being a fully independent school at Yale – a transition that was fully realized on July 1 of this year.
At USF, Dr. Vermund will be dean of the USF College of Public Health, a senior associate vice president of USF Health, and a distinguished university health professor. In his role as president of the Global Virus Network (GVH), Dr. Vermund oversees a nonprofit coalition of human and animal virologists from more than 80 centers of excellence in 40 countries. The GVH works to advance knowledge about future pandemic threats, mitigate the spread of potential viruses, and develop drugs, vaccines, and treatments to combat them.