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Parcel Picked as Next Dean
of UT School of Public Health at Houston
Guy S. Parcel, Ph.D.
Executive Dean Guy S. Parcel, Ph.D., the John P. McGovern Professor in Health Promotion at The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, has been appointed to a threeyear term as dean of the school by James T. Willerson, M.D., president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
“For more than a year now, Dr. Parcel has led the smooth operation and continued progress at the school in support of the current dean,” Willerson said. “He has undertaken several administrative changes to improve the quality and effectiveness of the school’s programs, while encouraging among the faculty and staff a growing excellence in research and teaching – not only in Houston, but at four regional campuses around the state. I am convinced that he will lead the UT School of Public Health to outstanding growth and accomplishments when he becomes dean.”
Parcel will assume the deanship upon the December 2004 retirement of R. Palmer Beasley, M.D., who has served as UT School of Public Health dean for more than 17 years. Beasley is now completing a two-year term as chairman of the Association of Schools of Public Health.
Willerson made the announcement at a meeting at the School of Public Health June 30. Parcel will become only the third dean in the 35-year history of what is the oldest school of public health in Texas.
“My vision for the UT School of Public Health is that it will become well-known as one of the leading schools of public health in the country,” Parcel said. “Our mission is to protect and improve the health of the public – and we have an excellent nationwide reputation across all three of our mission areas, which are teaching, research and service.”
Parcel, who was appointed executive dean in February 2003, previously had served as “acting dean” of the school on several occasions. He joined the UT School of Public Health in 1986 as associate director of the Center for Health Promotion Research and Development.
His research concentrates on developing and evaluating effective school-based health promotion programs for children, including diet, physical activity, smoking prevention and asthma self-management. He also studies effective smoking prevention programs in schools and has investigated a school-based intervention to reduce behaviors that result in STD/HIV infection.
“Two of our new centers – the Hispanic Health Research Center in Brownsville and the Hispanic Health Disparities Research Center in El Paso – will focus on the public health needs of the least studied and most underserved population in the country,” Parcel said. “We are also in the process of establishing a Health Policy Institute to translate research findings into recommendations for ensuring better health for people of all ages and ethnicities.”
Parcel recently announced a major change in the school’s organizational structure, creating five administrative divisions along functional lines rather than adhering strictly to academic disciplines.
“The new division system, which is based on feedback and discussions with the faculty units, will further enable efficiency, interdisciplinary teaching and research, better communication and accountability, while also increasing the opportunities for placing a high value on good leadership,” Parcel said.
Parcel received his doctoral degree in health education and child development from Pennsylvania State University, after earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington.
The author or co-author of more than 200 scientific papers and book chapters, Parcel received the 1990 William A. Howe Award from the American School Health Association for outstanding contributions and distinguished service in school health. In 1999, he received the Texas Society for Public Health Education’s Dorothy Huskey Award.
He is a co-author of the textbook, Intervention Mapping: Designing Theory- and Evidence-Based Health Promotion Programs (Mayfield Publishing, ©2000).
From 1992-2002, Parcel was the second-highest recipient of research funding at the UT Health Science Center, with more than $21 million in total awards during those 10 years.
As principal investigator of a 1991-94 nationwide, multi-center study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Parcel led development of the CATCH program, which is a coordinated school health program that builds an alliance of parents, teachers, child nutrition personnel, school staff and community partners to teach children and their families how to be healthy for a lifetime. More than 1,250 elementary schools in Texas have adopted CATCH, teaching over 600,000 Texas children healthy behavioral changes to avoid cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.
The School of Public Health was established by the Texas Legislature in 1969. The school has four regional campuses located in Brownsville, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio, offering the Master of Public Health degree.
“A major goal for our school is to strengthen our regional campus system, which we hope will soon extend to Austin, as well as the four existing programs offering educational opportunities for students in other areas of Texas,” Parcel said.
The UT School of Public Health is ranked 5th largest in student enrollment, 7th in research funding and number one among schools of public health in the U.S. for its doctoral programs in health education.
About 50 percent of the school’s more than 3,000 graduates work in Texas.
— By David R. Bates, Public Affairs