Heidi van Rooyen didn’t pursue a degree in public health, but it came knocking on her door all the same. “In a way, public health found me,” she said. It found her growing up in South Africa. From a young age, van Rooyen had a sharp awareness of health inequities that resulted from apartheid.
On October 1, Heidi van Rooyen began her appointment as the Chair of the Department of Global Health (DGH). Van Rooyen is an internationally recognized and accomplished South African scholar.
The University of Washington School of Public Health (UW SPH) is pleased to announce faculty taking on new leadership appointments starting in the 2024-2025 academic year. These leadership roles support our shared work of solving the greatest public health challenges and co-creating health equity with communities in our region and the world.
Heidi van Rooyen, an internationally recognized executive leader, social scientist and clinical psychologist, has been named the next chair of the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Van Rooyen is scheduled to begin her appointment as chair October 1, 2024, pending Board of Regents approval. She succeeds Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology Carey Farquhar, who served as interim chair of the department since 2022.