Sandro Galea

Sandro Galea (born April 23, 1971) is a physician, epidemiologist, and author. He is the Robert A. Knox professor and dean at the Boston University School of Public Health. He is the former Chair of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Galea is past president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and an elected member of the American Epidemiological Society. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2012, chairing two of the organization's reports on mental health in the military. He formerly served as chair of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Community Services Board and as a member of its Health Board.

In May 2024, Galea announced that he would become the inaugural Margaret C. Ryan Dean of Washington University in St. Louis' new School of Public Health at the start of 2025.

Early life and education
Sandro Galea was born on April 23, 1971, in the Republic of Malta. At the age of 14, he emigrated with his family to Canada. Galea completed his undergraduate studies in cell and molecular biology at the University of Toronto in 1990. After graduating from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1994, he underwent residencies in family medicine at Northern Ontario School of Medicine University from 1994 to 1996 and emergency medicine at the University of Toronto from 1996 to 1997. While completing his family medicine residency in Thunder Bay, Ontario, he met his wife, Margaret Kruk, who is currently a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Early in his career, Galea worked as an emergency physician in Ontario district hospitals and as a project physician for Médecins Sans Frontières in Somalia.

Galea then completed a Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2000, specializing in quantitative methods, followed by doctoral public health studies in epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health from 2000 to 2003.

Academic career
Sandra Galea worked as a medical epidemiologist for the New York Academy of Medicine's Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies from 2000 to 2005, promoted to the center's associate director in 2002. From 2003 to 2005, he was an associate professor of clinical epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

From 2005 to 2009, Galea taught epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, granted tenure in 2008. From 2008 to 2009, he was a research professor for the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and throughout 2009, he directed the university's Center for Global Health.

Returning to Columbia's Mailman School in 2010 as Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and the Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor of Epidemiology, Galea launched episummer@columbia, which offers online epidemiology courses annually during June. In 2012, the department founded the Global Mental Health Programs Consortium, uniting Columbia University's research on mental health topics.

In 2015, Galea succeeded Robert Meenan as Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. In 2016, he succeeded Jonathan Simon as the school's Robert A. Knox professor. In this role, he partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to launch the Health Determinants, Data, and Decision-making (3-D) Commission in 2020, which unites data scientists and policy analysts in improving the social determinants of health.

Since 2015, Galea has chaired the National Advisory Committee of Evidence for Action (E4A), a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program focused on improving population health and racial equity. Galea served as the inaugural president of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) from 2016 to 2017. Elected in December 2016, Galea was President of the Board of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) from March 2017 to March 2022.

From December 2016 to September 2020, Galea was also on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Office of Readiness and Response (ORR). In 2022, Boston mayor Michelle Wu appointed Galea to chair the Boston Public Health Commission's Board of Health.

In May 2024, Galea announced that he would become the inaugural Margaret C. Ryan Dean of Washington University in St. Louis' new School of Public Health at the start of 2025. In this position, Galea will also hold the Eugene S. and Constance D. Kahn Distinguished Professorship in Public Health.

Research and publications
Sandro Galea's research has largely focused on anxiety disorders and substance abuse following mass trauma events, such as the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. His papers have also examined strategies to improve firearm safety in the United States. In 2006, his research on the 2003 SARS outbreak among Toronto healthcare workers was profiled in Time among other leading epidemiologists. With over 1,000 peer-reviewed journal articles, Galea's work is highly cited, achieving an h-index of 149, as of 2023. In 2015, Thomson Reuters named Galea among "the world's most influential scientific minds" in social science based on citation data from 2003 to 2013.

Additionally, Galea edited the textbooks Cities and the Health of the Public (2003), Methods for Disaster Mental Health Research (2006), Handbook of Urban Health: Populations, Methods, and Practice (2006), Macrosocial Determinants of Population Health (2007), Mental Health and Disasters (2009), Population Mental Health (2011), The Causes and Behavioral Consequences of Disasters (2011), A Life Course Approach to Mental Disorders (2013), Epidemiology Matters: A New Introduction to Methodological Foundations (2014), Population Health Science (2016), Systems Science and Population Health (2017), Growing Inequality: Bridging Complex Systems, Population Health, and Health Disparities (2017), Urban Health (2019), Teaching Public Health (2019), Public Health (2019), Migration and Health (2022), The Picture of Health (2022), and The Commercial Determinants of Health (2022).

Aside from academic publishing, Galea has published the general audience books Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health (2017), Well: What We Need To Talk About When We Talk About Health (2019), Pained: Uncomfortable Conversations about the Public's Health (2020), The Contagion Next Time (2021), and Within Reason (2023). Since January 2021, Galea has published a Substack newsletter titled "The Healthiest Goldfish". The name is a metaphor for the health of all organisms depending on their environment, rather than being solely determined by the quality of their medical care.

Editorial work
Sandro Galea has conducted editorial work for the Journal of Urban Health (Associated Editor, 2004-2007), Journal of Traumatic Stress (Editorial Board, 2005-2007; Associated Editor, 2007-2011), American Journal of Epidemiology (Associated Editor, 2006–present), Epidemiology (Editorial Board, 2006-2012), Depression and Anxiety (Editorial Board, 2009-2017), International Journal of Drug Policy (Editorial Board, 2012-2016), Global Health Perspectives (Editorial Board, 2012-2016), Current Epidemiology Reports (Social Epidemiology Editor, 2013-2014), and Social Sciences & Medicine Population Health (Editorial Board, 2015–present). He also presently serves on the Editorial Board of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

Selected awards

 * University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine Dean's 25th Anniversary Alumni Award (2019)
 * Society for Epidemiologic Research Distinguished Service Award (2019)
 * Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Allan Rosenfeld Alumni Award for Excellence (2017)
 * Honorary Doctor of Science – University of Glasgow, Scotland (2015)
 * Rema Lapouse Award – American Public Health Association (2015)
 * National Academy of Medicine – Elected Member (2012)
 * Society for Epidemiologic Research – Elected President (2011)
 * American Epidemiological Society – Elected Member (2008)
 * Health Policy Investigator Award – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2006)
 * New York Academy of Medicine – Elected Fellow (2004)