Dobbs named endowed Chair for the Study of Health Disparities
Published on Monday, January 22, 2024
By: Andrea Wright Dilworth, awdilworth@umc.edu
Photos By: Joe Ellis/ UMMC Photography
Dr. Thomas Dobbs has established himself as a leader in public health: as state health officer during the pandemic, dean of the John D. Bower School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and now, an endowed chair.
During a ceremony Thursday, Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs, presented Dobbs with a medal that represents his new role as endowed Chair for the Study of Health Disparities.
Created in 2005 by the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation and under the leadership of Dr. Aaron Shirley, who served as JMM Chairman of the Board, the endowment has reached $1.77 million, which includes investment income.
Dobbs, SOPH dean and the new Chair for the Study of Health Disparities, chats with Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs, and guests before the endowment announcement.
It was an idea born from the vision and passion of Dr. Dan Jones, vice chancellor emeritus for health affairs, Shirley and the Shirley family, Woodward said.
“When you think about health care in Mississippi, it really does not matter how you slice and dice facts and figures,” Woodward told attendees at the ceremony, held at the Translational Research Center. “At the end of the day, one of the common denominators that is a challenge for us is the issue of health disparities. I think there is no better person in this state to carry this medal and to have this chair.
“Thomas has spent his career in public health, in infection disease, in state leadership, both in the clinical realm, in the leadership realm and in research. So you put all of that together and it really is the perfect recipe and the perfect set of skills, training and life experience to be this person who can look at health disparities for us across the state.”
Reflecting on the endowed chair’s transition from state health officer of the Mississippi State Department of Health to SOPH dean, Woodward said she often assures people that because Dobbs was such an asset in his former role, she did not “intentionally poach” him from MSDH. Until she learned he was ready for a change.
She said she told Dobbs, “’If you are thinking it’s time for something different, let me tell you, have I got a job for you.’ So I couldn’t be more pleased that he’s here, that he is the dean of the School of Population Health, that he’s doing the work that he’s doing. I feel it is a continuance of what he started at the Department of Health, as far as having that eye toward the health of all Mississippians across the whole spectrum.”
The endowment will enable SOPH to better address health-related social needs and increase engagement in projects that are critically important to the Jackson community but not currently funded through grant programs, said Dobbs.
Dobbs, third from left, with Dr. Daniel Edney, MSDH state health officer, Dr. Paul Byers, associate professor of preventive medicine, and Dr. Justin Turner, MSDH chief medical officer.
Dobbs said the priorities are hiring additional staff to address mission areas that include food insecurity, housing insecurity, transportation and factors that perpetuate poverty. “If we can lead people to critical support services, it can make a phenomenal difference in a person’s life. The needs are really incalculable.”
Surveying the room, Dobbs said he noticed some already in partnership with SOPH, as well as those with the potential to partner.
“No one can do anything alone, but together we can do some remarkable things,” he said.
News of the endowment will highlight the connection between people’s lives outside of the health system and their health status, said Dobbs.
“Most of what drives health has nothing to do with walking into the clinic or going to the hospital. It has everything to do with having a safe environment, a supportive family, financial stability and access to necessary services.”
Dobbs said he would like to see SOPH be a powerful force of transformational change in health for the state.
“But we’re just part of it,” he charged. “I think we can be a catalyst. We bring something special. We bring an ingredient to the recipe that maybe can really spice it up a little bit. But we’ve got to have all the other pieces. We’ve got to have our community partners. We have to have legislative leaders. We have to have the health department. We have to have people who are engaged in the community, faith leaders.
“Keep your eyes open because great things are going to come out of this school.”