Wactawski-Wende joins SUNY Distinguished Professor ranks

Jean Wactawski-Wende has a new title to add to her list. The dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions has been appointed to the rank of SUNY Distinguished Professor, the highest faculty rank in the SUNY system.

Wactawski-Wende was one of 10 SUNY faculty members named to the Distinguished Professor ranks by the SUNY Board of Trustees at its meeting on Nov. 5.

The rank of Distinguished Professor is an order above full professorship and has three co-equal designations: Distinguished Professor, Distinguished Service Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor.

The distinguished professorship recognizes and honors individuals who have achieved national or international prominence in their fields.

“I am honored to be chosen. UB has provided me so many opportunities and a rich environment to explore my research over many years. I am very thankful for that,” says Wactawski-Wende, a renowned epidemiologist and global leader in women’s health research. “This award is not mine alone. It also recognizes the many faculty, staff, students and collaborators whom I have had the opportunity to work with over the years and who make this work possible.”

Wactawski-Wende is the principal investigator on UB’s Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). UB is one of the original 16 “vanguard clinical centers” selected to participate in the groundbreaking initiative and serves as the WHI Northeast Regional Center, managing data collection and scientific coordination among nine WHI-affiliated institutions.

She and UB recently received $6.2 million in federal funding to continue WHI research projects through 2020. These include following health outcomes of the participants in the study — who numbered more than 161,000 when the WHI launched in 1993 — and an ancillary study examining the oral microbiome and its relation to oral and systemic health. An active researcher for more than 25 years, Wactawski-Wende has been awarded more than $40 million in grants and contracts since 2001. She was named interim dean in July 2014 and appointed dean in March 2015 following a national search.

In announcing the new recipients of the distinguished professorship, SUNY Board Chair H. Carl McCall called the faculty members — hailing from Stony Brook University, Westchester Community College and Binghamton University, as well as UB — “innovators and trailblazers in their chosen field, teaching and mentoring students while advancing groundbreaking research and discovery in New York’s communities, as well as worldwide.”

“We are proud to recognize the leadership of our distinguished faculty and the extraordinary impact they have on SUNY students and campus communities,” added SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher.

Wactawski-Wende joined the UB faculty in 1989 after a five-year stint as a research scientist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. She has a PhD in experimental pathology (epidemiology) from UB, a master’s degree in natural sciences (epidemiology) from UB’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute Division and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Canisius College.