Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH

Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH, is dean of the School of Public Health, where she oversees the growth and continued success of the school’s seven academic departments and hundreds of students, faculty, and staff. She also serves as professor of environmental and occupational health and is the Jonas Salk Professor of Population Health. 

Dr. Lichtveld studies environmental public health, focusing on environmentally induced disease, health disparities, environmental health policy, disaster preparedness, public health systems, and community resilience. Her research examines the cumulative impact of chemical and non-chemical stressors on communities facing environmental health threats, disasters, and health disparities.  

Before joining Pitt in January 2021, Dr. Lichtveld chaired Tulane University’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She also directed the Center for Gulf Coast Environmental Health Research, Leadership, and Strategic Initiatives within Tulane’s public health and tropical medicine school. In this role, Dr. Lichtveld led development and implementation of disaster management, health promotion, and disease-prevention strategies for Gulf Coast communities. Prior to her arrival at Tulane in 2005, Dr. Lichtveld spent 18 years with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, where she designed public health research tools and protocols to guide environmental health studies in communities located near hazardous waste sites.    

Dr. Lichtveld is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a member of the board of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. She received her MPH from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health and her MD from Anton de Kom University of Suriname and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.