I am very happy to share that M. Kristen Peek, PhD, has been named Senior Vice President and Dean of the School of Public and Population Health (SPPH), effective June 1. Dr. Peek has provided outstanding leadership as Dean ad interim of the school since October 2021. 

Her history of educational leadership at UTMB includes service as Vice Chair for Education in Preventive Medicine and Population Health (2013 to 2020), Population Health Sciences Program Director (2011 to 2020), MD/PhD Program Director (2018 to 2020), Associate Dean for Recruitment in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (2013 to 2018), and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the GSBS (2018 to 2021). She has also been Chair ad interim of the Department of Population Health and Health Disparities (previously PMPH) since April 2020.

Dr. Peek earned her PhD in Sociology from Duke University in Durham, NC. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Health Policy and Epidemiology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, before joining UTMB in 1999. She is an accomplished researcher and educator with continuous NIH funding for 22 years including grants on the role of stress and social relationships on health disparities, on the impact of marriage on health among older adults of Mexican origin, and on environmental effects of natural disaster on stress-related biomarkers. 

She is currently the Centennial Chair in Preventive Medicine and Community Health and has previously held the John Sealy Distinguished Chair for MD/PhD Combined Degree Studies and the Mary and J. Palmer Saunders Professor for Excellence in Teaching. She has received several teaching awards, including the Regents Outstanding Teaching Award from UT System.