Donna Petersen, MHS, ScD
Sr. Associate Vice President, USF Health
Dean, USF College of Public Health

Donna Petersen, MHS, ScD, is Dean of USF’s College of Public Health, the nation’s first College of Public Health to be created by a state legislature. Prior to joining USF in 2005, Dean Petersen was at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Public Health, where she served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Public Health Research and was a Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health, and the Dept. of Health Care Organization and Policy.

Dean Petersen is a frequent lecturer on topics related to maternal and child health, health care reform, and systems change and leadership, and has provided extensive technical assistance and training to state health departments in the areas of needs assessment, data system development, and public health roles within evolving health care systems. She has devoted particular attention to public health responsibilities in monitoring health status, access, utilization, and quality of health care and in the areas of systems level accountability and the development of population-based indicators. Dr. Petersen has authored numerous publications, book chapters and a textbook on needs-assessment in public health. She has been honored for her work by the American Public Health Association, the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health, the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition and the Delta Omega National Public Health Honor Society. She was the 1996 recipient of the UAB President’s Excellence in Teaching Award and is the 2003 recipient of the UAB School of Public Health Outstanding Public Health Service Award.

Dr. Petersen earned her masters and doctoral degrees from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She has also held positions with the federal government and the state of Maryland and has served on numerous community agency boards and national and gubernatorial commissions and task forces. More...