Dr. Sten Vermund will bring decades of infectious disease epidemiology and prevention experience to USF
The University of South Florida today announced the appointment of Sten Vermund, MD, PhD, as the new dean of the USF Health College of Public Health.
Dr. Vermund joins USF after serving as the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health, as dean of the Yale School of Public Health from 2017 to 2022, and as professor in pediatrics and clinical professor in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine. He is also the current president of the Global Virus Network, which recently moved its international headquarters to USF.
Dr. Sten Vermund.
Dr. Vermund will join USF in January 2025 as Distinguished University Health Professor, senior associate vice president of USF Health, and dean. The College of Public Health, which consists of approximately 4,700 students and more than 400 faculty and support staff, is among four colleges and a faculty medical practice plan that make up USF Health.
“We are incredibly fortunate that Dr. Sten Vermund has agreed to become the next dean of the USF Health College of Public Health, and I am confident that he will elevate Florida’s first and finest College of Public Health to even greater heights,” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, executive vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “I also want to express our deep gratitude to Dr. Donna Petersen for her 20 years of inspiring and energetic leadership as dean. She has shaped COPH into the powerhouse it is today, and we are forever in her debt.”
During Dr. Vermund’s time as dean at Yale, the public health school experienced its largest jump in the national rankings in more than a decade, garnered unprecedented development funds, and reorganized and expanded the school’s Office of Public Health Practice to provide students with more guidance and internship opportunities to improve their prospects for future jobs.
Dr. Vermund’s work as an infectious disease epidemiologist and pediatrician is extensive; he has published more than 600 peer-reviewed publications and serves on the editorial boards of several major academic journals.
He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Dr. Vermund’s work has focused on diseases of resource-limited settings, including HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (especially HPV), COVID-19, and parasitic diseases. Also of interest are disease control and prevention, including HIV prevention clinical trials and implementation science to increase coverage and quality of services.
He served as principal investigator of several collaborative efforts: the Adolescent Medicine HIV/AIDS Research Network, the NIH Prevention Trials Network, U.S. HIV/AIDS programs in Zambia, Nigeria, and Mozambique (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR), and the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program.
Prior to his work at Yale, Dr. Vermund was vice president for global health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In addition to his career in academics, Dr. Vermund was chief of the epidemiology branch for the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/Division of AIDS from 1988 to 1994.
“My connections with several faculty at USF’s College of Public Health and Morsani College of Medicine run deep,” Dr. Vermund said. “It is a privilege to join them and my new colleagues in our efforts to train the next generation of public and global health leaders. The research at USF is phenomenal and the service to our state is inspiring. I thank all those who have made it possible for me to join the USF family.”
Dr. Vermund earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in human biology with distinction from Stanford University; his MD degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY; and his doctorate in epidemiology from Columbia University, New York, NY.
Specializing in pediatrics, Dr. Vermund conducted both a pediatric internship and residency at Presbyterian (Babies) Hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
He is married to Pilar Vargas, MD, PhD, and they have two adult sons.