Chan School of Public Health Department Chair Departs for UCLA

Kari Nadeau, an environmental health leader, will serve as the dean of the Fielding School of Public Health.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY NIKO YAITANES/HARVARD MAGAZINE

Rock professor of climate and population studies Kari Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, will depart the University effective on July 1 to become the new dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Harvard Chan School Dean Andrea Baccarelli announced the news in an email to the school community on March 24. Nadeau, a physician-scientist whose work spans environmental health, climate, and immunology, has led the department since 2023.

During her tenure, Nadeau has directed the Allergy, Extreme Weather, and Exposomics Laboratory and served as interim director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE). She is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an associate of the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability.

In December, Nadeau briefly served as interim director of the controversial François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights following a leadership transition; currently, she is one of a four-person faculty advisory committee refocusing the Center on children’s health and early development.

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