Dr. Michael D. Stein, chair and professor of health law, policy & management, has been named interim dean of Boston University School of Public Health, effective January 1, 2025. Stein will serve in this role as the university initiates a national search for a permanent dean following the departure of Dean Sandro Galea after ten years in the role.

Stein, who joined SPH in 2016, is a prominent public health leader, practicing physician, and scholar. Among the top National Institutes of Health grant recipients over the past two decades, Stein has worked at the intersection of behavioral medicine and primary care. His research expertise spans the areas of substance use disorders, HIV/AIDS, sleep and pain, mental health, and the determinants of risk-taking. Prior to SPH, he was professor of medicine at Brown University where he served as director of HIV services at Rhode Island Hospital for two decades and director of behavioral medicine at Butler Hospital.

“Dr. Stein is among our most distinguished faculty leaders,” wrote Provost Gloria Waters in a message to Boston University faculty and staff on Tuesday, September 17. “We are grateful for Dr. Stein’s willingness to serve while we complete our national search and look forward to formally welcoming him to the role next January.”

Stein is a prolific author and writer, publishing over 450 scientific journal articles, six acclaimed novels, and eight non-fiction books, including 2024’s The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic, co-authored with Dean Galea, as well as a stream of essays for wider media in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.

“I am delighted that Michael has agreed to serve as Dean ad interim of the school. Transitions are challenging—but also filled with promise—and I think Michael brings to the role a commitment to the work of the school, and a deep understanding of how we can continue to advance our mission,” says Galea. “I look forward to seeing how Michael, working with other school leaders, will move the school forward, and to continue to learn from the work that this school does so well.”

Stein also serves as executive editor of Public Health Post, SPH’s daily population health magazine featuring articles written by student fellows and leading public health experts. Describing PHP as his “classroom,” Stein provides hands-on editing and mentorship to MPH students in partnership with Associate Editor Jennifer Beard.

“I am deeply honored to have been asked to serve as Dean in this interim period and will work to keep this great school on its upward trajectory as we begin 2025,” says Stein. “We will be entering a new political world when the work of public health will be needed all the more and I look forward to the challenge.”