The University of Iowa College of Public Health is pleased to welcome Anjali Deshpande, PhD, MPH, as director of the college’s Master of Public Health (MPH) Program and clinical associate professor in epidemiology. Dr. Deshpande will officially join the college on June 30, 2016.

As part of the college’s academic affairs office, Dr. Deshpande will provide strategic and innovative leadership for the MPH program. We are very excited to have her join our team and look forward to her expertise and enthusiasm in training the next generation of public health professionals.

Before joining the University of Iowa, Dr. Deshpande was an assistant professor in the Division of General Medical Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., and director of the graduate programs in Applied Health Behavior Research. Her areas of research interest include disparities in health behaviors and disease outcomes related to cancer, as well as the impact of multimorbidity (co-existing chronic health conditions) on quality of life outcomes of older adults.

Dr. Deshpande has taught graduate-level courses in epidemiology and public health, and since 2009 has taught an Evidence-Based Public Health training course to state and local public health practitioners as a consultant with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors. From 2003 through 2008, she was an assistant professor of community health in epidemiology at Saint Louis University School of Public Health.

She was the consultant epidemiologist for the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services from 2001 to 2003. In that role, she worked with chronic disease programs in the development and evaluation of programs, as well as with the Missouri Cancer Registry and BRFSS surveillance programs in data collection and analysis.

Dr. Deshpande completed her PhD in epidemiology from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.; her MPH in epidemiology from the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City, Okla.; and her BS in microbiology from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.