Message from Dean Coben: Welcome Back Students!

I’m delighted to welcome you to the start of the 2022-23 academic year. For those of you who are new to the School of Public Health, on behalf of our entire school, I extend an extra “welcome!” and look forward to meeting you soon. To those of you who are returning, welcome back! I hope each of you had an enjoyable summer and found some time to reflect and recharge. 

We have much to look forward to this year. Beginning in September, we will be resuming our Dean’s Colloquium Series and, among other school-level events, we can look forward to a series of Health Sciences Center-wide seminars and special events that are being organized by the Chancellor’s office. Additionally, we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary as a formally established School of Public Health, with a weeklong celebration at the end of October! Additional information on all of these activities will be made available in the weeks ahead, so please watch your inboxes and follow the School of Public Health on our social media channels to stay up to date. 

As you embark on this next leg of your academic journey, whether you’re new to WVU or a returning Mountaineer, I encourage you to keep your “why" in focus this year. For some of you, your “why,” or your purpose, might still be in its developmental stages, and that’s okay. We’re here to help you find and shape it into something that is unique to you. Regardless of what led you here, please know you have chosen to pursue public health at a time when its significance to the world couldn’t be greater. 

The larger “why” in public health is driven by our collective effort to give every individual in society, regardless of his/her/their background or identity, an equal opportunity to have the healthiest life they can. I applaud each of you for joining me and the rest of the School of Public Health family in this effort. I couldn’t be more grateful to have you on our team. 

I look forward to connecting with each of you this year and wish you all the best this semester. 

Let’s go! 

Dean Coben