Gilbert Ramirez

Biography

Dr. Gilbert Ramirez returned to the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work after serving from 2009 to 2012 as associate dean of academic and student affairs and professor in health policy and management at Stempel College. He has 30 years of experience contributing to health policy and management at national and international levels. He was a member of the CDC Community Guide Taskforce and the Cochrane and Campbell Collaborations, where he participated in the review of evidence-based public health policies and collaborated on numerous systematic reviews as a meta-analysis methodologist. Dr. Ramirez is also a prolific researcher, equipped with an active research portfolio that encompasses various topics relevant to health policy. He’s focused his research efforts on older adults and falling, policies regarding raw milk consumption and milk-acquired brucellosis, and several CDC Community Guide policy concerns such as sedentary recreational time, cholesterol medication costs, and alcohol beverage taxes for reducing excessive consumption. Currently, his research focuses on the relationships between religion, politics, and health.

Before his current role at Stempel College, Dr. Ramirez served as Founding Chair and Professor at the Department of Public Health Studies at Texas A&M University. In this role, he successfully implemented a new undergraduate program in public health, achieving 50 to 350 majors within three years. He also developed and implemented a new public health minor that grew from 10 to 150 within the same period. Between 2012 and 2014, Dr. Ramirez was the Founding Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Educational Effectiveness at West Virginia University. Here he successfully led programmatic accreditation for their school of public health.

Dr. Ramirez has extensive practice experience in public health as a career soldier in the U.S. Army and the civilian sector serving on the Board of Health in Monongalia County, West Virginia, and as an officer of the Southern California Public Health Association.