Teresa Waters named inaugural dean of recent College of Public Well being – Jagwire

Augusta College will quickly welcome Teresa M. Waters, PhD, because the inaugural dean of the brand new School of Public Health. Waters, who will start in her new position on Aug. 1, presently serves on the College of Kentucky’s Faculty of Public Well being because the chair of the Division of Well being Administration and Coverage, Charles T. Wethington Jr. Endowed Chair within the Well being Sciences and interim director of the Heart for Well being Providers Analysis, Implementation Science, and Coverage.

Waters’ appointment is the results of an intensive nationwide search carried out by a search committee chaired by Jennifer C. SullivanPhD, dean of The Graduate School at Augusta College, in partnership with the WittKieffer search agency.

“I’m honored to function the inaugural dean at Augusta College’s College of Public Well being and thrilled to work with the distinctive college, workers and college students who will name the College of Public Well being dwelling. It’s such an thrilling time to be becoming a member of the AU household and the neighborhood of Augusta. I sit up for working with campus management, college, workers, college students and alumni, in addition to neighborhood companions and stakeholders, to place public well being at AU as a frontrunner in remodeling inhabitants well being throughout Georgia and all over the world.”

Teresa M. Waters, PhD, inaugural dean of the brand new College of Public Well being

“I’m honored to function the inaugural dean at Augusta College’s College of Public Well being and thrilled to work with the distinctive college, workers and college students who will name the College of Public Well being dwelling,” stated Waters. “It’s such an thrilling time to be becoming a member of the AU household and the neighborhood of Augusta. I sit up for working with campus management, college, workers, college students and alumni, in addition to neighborhood companions and stakeholders, to place public well being at AU as a frontrunner in remodeling inhabitants well being throughout Georgia and all over the world.”

Reporting to Neil J. MacKinnonPhD, govt vp for educational affairs and provost, Waters will probably be charged with combining Augusta College’s foundational items right into a united objective, which is on schedule to start July of this yr. Augusta College is already dwelling to the Institute of Public and Preventive Healththe Center for Rural Health and the statewide Area Health Education Centers. The College of Allied Health Sciences affords a Master of Public Health diploma and PhD in Applied Health Scienceswhereas the Medical College of Georgia’s Department of Population Health Sciences homes a number of graduate applications, and the College of Education and Human Development affords a well being promotion undergraduate program.

READ MORE: Programs take shape for Augusta University’s new School of Public Health

“Dr. Waters brings a wealth of management expertise in public well being coverage, training, analysis and college improvement, attributes that may significantly profit the college as she steps into her position because the inaugural dean of our new College of Public Well being,” stated MacKinnon, who himself is a former director of the Heart for Rural Well being and college member on the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Faculty of Public Well being on the College of Arizona. “This new faculty is a monumental endeavor, however I’m excited for what it’ll do for Augusta College and our college students, the residents of Georgia and past.”

Beneath Water’s path, UK’s Division of Well being Administration and Coverage has employed greater than a dozen college throughout title sequence and ranks and applied a number of new academic applications, together with a PhD in Well being Providers Analysis and an internet MPH focus. She additionally efficiently guided the Grasp of Well being Administration program by accreditation in 2018.

“Our new College of Public Well being will higher focus our college’s unimaginable foundational items right into a united objective, and Dr. Waters is effectively suited to tackle the tasks of this activity,” stated Augusta College President Brooks A. KeelPhD. “As we work to proceed to satisfy our aspirational imperatives, together with a top-60 NIH rating by 2030, it is very important recruit and faucet into the information of somebody of Dr. Waters’ caliber. She additionally has a confirmed observe document of advancing departments and items beneath her purview, and I sit up for working together with her to proceed to supply our college students and sufferers world-class training and care.”

In her numerous roles at UK’s Faculty of Public Well being, Waters managed and grew her departmental funds, growing each college funding from $1.1 million to $1.6 million and extramural funding from $1.1 million to $2.3 million.

As interim director of the Heart for Well being Providers Analysis, Implementation Science, and Coverage, Waters led a campus-wide revisioning and strategic planning course of after management of the predecessor middle (Heart for Well being Providers Analysis) left the College of Kentucky, partaking high-level management from six UK schools, UK HealthCare and Kentucky Medical Providers Basis (UK’s Doctor Follow Plan).

“The search committee is thrilled that Dr. Waters will probably be becoming a member of us because the inaugural dean of the College of Public Well being,” Sullivan stated. “She has a confirmed observe document of advancing her college, securing grant funding for analysis initiatives and shaping curricula that may put together the following era of public well being leaders. We had been extraordinarily impressed by her power, imaginative and prescient and dedication to public well being.”

A classically-trained economist from Vanderbilt College, Dr. Waters seeks to use financial “instruments and pondering” to well being companies and coverage questions. Her present analysis focuses totally on pay-for-performance insurance policies and applications in well being care: influence, unintended penalties and potential enhancements.

Waters lately accomplished two grants as principal investigator/a number of principal investigator: an R01 funded by the Company for Healthcare Analysis and High quality (AHRQ) to look at the influence of Medicare worth applications on high quality and security and a Robert Wooden Johnson Basis grant exploring the influence of Medicaid-managed care group partnerships with community-based organizations to deal with enrollees’ unmet social wants. Waters’ analysis has been funded constantly by AHRQ over the previous decade. Over her profession, Waters has secured over $50 million in grant funding for analysis initiatives, together with three present initiatives.

Waters additionally served as affiliate dean for analysis for UK’s Faculty of Public Well being from 2018 to 2021. Beneath her management, the school noticed sturdy progress in awards, funding and PIs over a three-year interval — a 22% enhance in extramural funding ($18 million to $22 million), 31% enhance in awards (61 to 80) and 28% enhance in distinctive PIs (32 to 41). As ADR, she additionally developed and applied an Workplace of Scientific Writing to help PI success at UK’s Faculty of Public Well being, providing grant and paper writing workshops, scientific enhancing for proposals and papers and help for IRBs.

READ MORE: Augusta University to launch new School of Public Health (link to article from May 25, 2022)

Over her profession in larger training, Waters has contributed six e book chapters, evaluations and non-peer reviewed publications, in addition to written over 100 articles for peer-reviewed journals.

As an Government Management in Tutorial Drugs fellow in 2020-21, her institutional motion venture was “Growing a Campus-wide Framework for Rising Analysis Mentors.” In collaboration with affiliate deans of analysis throughout UK’s campus, she applied an evidence-based curriculum primarily based on “Getting into Mentoring and Essential Conversations.”

Within the classroom, Waters has taught undergraduate, grasp’s and PhD-level programs in well being economics, well being finance and well being companies analysis. Whereas she enjoys educating and sees it as a privilege, she stepped again from the classroom in 2020 to focus her ardour for educating by working to make sure that her division’s tutorial applications are sturdy and that her college has the time, instruments, coaching and help they should provide partaking and transformative academic experiences for his or her college students.

Waters is a member of the Affiliation for Well being Providers Analysis/AcademyHealth, the Worldwide Well being Economics Affiliation, the American Society of Well being Economists and the American Public Well being Affiliation.

From 2014 to 2017, Waters served as division chair for the Division of Preventive Drugs within the Faculty of Drugs on the College of Tennessee Well being Science Heart. Throughout her tenure as chair, the division grew from 22 to 30 college. To help this speedy progress, she reorganized division staffing to raised help analysis and reorganized division college into 4 divisions to raised help college cohesion and early profession college mentoring.

Waters joined the UK Faculty of Public Well being in December 2017 after serving as professor and chair of the Division of Preventive Drugs within the Faculty of Drugs on the College of Tennessee Well being Science Heart (UTHSC-Memphis). She was a school member at UTHSC for 18 years. She additionally served as a analysis affiliate professor and deputy director on the Institute for Well being Providers Analysis and Coverage Research at Northwestern College from 1992 by 2000.