Appointment of Dr. Meg Weigel as College of Health Sciences Associate Dean

Colleagues:

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Meg Weigel as Associate Dean, College of Health Sciences, effective September 1, 2009.  Her responsibilities will include leadership in faculty recruitment, faculty development and evaluation processes for the College of Health Sciences. She will replace Dr. Jeri Sias, who made many outstanding contributions in this role during 2008-9.

Dr.WeigelDr. Weigel is an interdisciplinary scholar who was awarded a PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). She received additional training in nutritional epidemiology and behavioral cardiology on a National, Heart, and Blood Institutes (NHLBI/NIH) postdoctoral research fellowship at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
 
Dr. Weigel has 24 years of experience in higher education. Currently, she is a tenured Professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) Program/Graduate Advisor in the same academic unit. She also is Co-Director of the CHS Human Immunology and Nutrition Research Laboratory. She was Co-Chair of the Department of Health Promotion from Fall 2007-Summer 2009.  In 2004, Dr. Weigel was awarded a Fulbright teaching and research fellowship (public/global health) at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez.
 
Prior to coming to UTEP in 2002, Dr. Weigel held faculty appointments in nutrition and medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Virginia Tech, the Universidad Central del Ecuador, and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ). At the USFQ, she was also the Director of the graduate and undergraduate Human Nutrition programs.
 
Dr. Weigel currently holds the rank of Professor in the Department of Health Promotion and is the Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) Program/Graduate Advisor. She is Co-Director of the Human Immunology and Nutrition Research Laboratory and also is faculty  in the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences and Environmental Science and Engineering doctoral programs. She served as co-Chair in the Department of Health Promotion from 2007 to 2009.
 
Weigel’s major research interests focus on the epidemiology and control of infectious and chronic diseases of global health significance, ethnomedicine, the health consequences of food insecurity, and the role of nutritional and other factors that influence pregnancy outcome. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, American Journal of Epidemiology, Journal of Infectious Disease, Vaccine, British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Tropical Medicine and International Health, Pan American Journal of Public Health, and the Journal of Perinatal Medicine, among others. Her work has been funded by national and international organizations such as the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR/WHO/UNICEF/UNDP), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Inter-American Development Bank, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
 
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Weigel on her new appointment!