Dear Colleagues,

I write today to share the news that Professor Chris Schmid will be stepping down as Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the end of the semester. He will return to his role as a full-time faculty member focused on teaching and research including continuation of his deep engagement with Advance Clinical and Translational Research (Advance-CTR) for which he has been a Director of the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Clinical Research Design Core since its inception in 2016, with the Center for Statistical Sciences, and with the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health, which he co-founded upon coming to Brown.

I am enormously grateful for Chris’s hard work and diligence as department chair over the past few years. He has been deeply valued for his commitment to the department and I am particularly indebted to him for his role as a member of the Dean’s Executive Committee. In his time as Chair, Chris has expanded the department’s education and research mission, including making strategic hires to increase connectivity across campus as well as to enhance the role of Biostatistics in all undergraduate, masters and doctoral education programs within the School of Public Health.

In the upcoming weeks, I will follow-up with information about an Interim Chair and our process for finding a permanent leader of the Department. But today, I want to focus my attention on Chris’s important work and thank him for his service to the Department and School.

Please join me in thanking Chris for his leadership. I look forward to continuing to work with him as a valued member of our faculty.

Sincerely,

Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH
Dean, School of Public Health