Chandler named interim dean of public health

Thomas Chandler has been named interim dean of the Arnold School of Public Health. His appointment became official Sept. 1.

Chandler has been chair of the Arnold School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences for nine years. The University will launch a national search for the school's new dean.

Former dean Donna Richter, who left the position Aug. 31, now is executive director of the University's new S.C. Public Health Institute. The institute will identify public-health priorities statewide and bring key public-health groups together to collaborate on policies and responses to public-health challenges and threats.

"This institute will elevate the discourse on public-health priorities in South Carolina and do so by reaching beyond the university in bringing together key stakeholders across all public-health sectors," said Harris Pastides, vice president for research and health sciences. "The mission of this institute will promote effective responses to critical public-health challenges while focusing, in part, on policy issues."

The S.C. Public Health Institute had its beginnings with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Turning Point Initiative in 2000, which focused on strengthening public-health programs in communities and, more recently, under the CDC's Academic Health Department grant program. Richter is the principal investigator on another grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that fosters the formation of institutes nationally to address public-health issues.

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