Dr. Tracy Nelson, a professor in the CSU Department of Health and Exercise Science, has been named director of the Colorado School of Public Health at CSU.

Beginning July 1, Nelson will succeed Dr. Lorann Stallones, who has served in the director position since 2007.

“This is an exciting time for the program, having celebrated a 10-year anniversary last year, and thinking ahead to the next 10 years,” Nelson said. “I am excited to work with our ever-growing faculty in the Colorado School of Public Health to best serve our students, and to more formally grow our public health research initiatives as well as our community engagement. Dr. Stallones has done a wonderful job over the last 12 years building the program at CSU, and it is an honor to continue this work.”

During Stallones’ leadership, the Colorado School of Public Health has been accredited by the Council on Education in Public Health twice and the CSU enrollment has grown from four students to more than 100 and graduated more than 250 MPH students. She will return to her position as professor in the Department of Psychology at CSU and will continue to serve as faculty advisor to MPH students in the Animals, People and the Environment and Global Health and Health Disparities concentrations and will teach courses in the public health program.

Nelson has been involved with the Colorado School of Public Health since early discussions for the school began in 2006. She became the associate director of the ColoradoSPH at CSU in 2011 and served as the lead faculty member for the Physical Activity and Healthy Lifestyles concentration for seven years, and currently serves as the lead for Epidemiology. She has a background in biobehavioral health as well as cardiovascular epidemiology. Her research has  focused on genetic and environmental risk factors and chronic disease outcomes, most recently she has worked with communities to evaluate and improve interventions to decrease community-level chronic disease risk. Another focus area of her research includes working with United States Special Operators to consider biobehavioral influences on performance and health.