I am pleased to announce that Malabika Sarker, Ph.D, MPH has agreed to serve as interim Chair of the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSS), effective July 1, 2024. She assumes this role as current interim Chair Katie Biello, Ph.D, MPH transitions to become the Chair of the Department of Epidemiology. The search for a permanent Chair of BSS is still in process and will continue until we find the right person to lead the department in the future. 

Malabika joined the School of Public Health as a Professor of the Practice in BSS in 2022, coming to us from Brac University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Before that, she was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. She has extensive leadership and administrative experience, having served as the Director of the Center for Implementation Science and Scale-up and the Associate Dean at the James P. Grant School of Public Health at Brac University. She has won many accolades and awards in her career, but one of the most impressive was being named a “Heroine of Health” in 2018 by Women in Global Health in Geneva, Switzerland – a recognition given for extraordinary global public health accomplishments among women leaders. Malabika grew up in Bangladesh and received her schooling there through college. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg in Germany and her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. 

Since joining us, she has proven herself to be an accomplished implementation scientist, teacher, mentor and researcher. I have the utmost confidence that Malabika will provide the leadership and stability needed in BSS as the search for a permanent Chair continues. 

For anyone in our community who has not had the pleasure of meeting Malabika, you can learn more about her in her Behind the Lectern appearance.  

Please join me in congratulating Malabika on her new role.  

Sincerely,