Assistant Professor in Public Health

Now, more than ever, is a time of transformation in health care education and research. The COVID pandemic and the Great Resignation have challenged health care systems and universities. At the Ball State University College of Health, we embrace the opportunity to build innovative models of twinned education and community health services. We graduate health professionals who are clinically knowledgeable and ready to collaborate on interprofessional teams. Our research embraces interdisciplinarity and community engagement. We invite applications for Assistant Professor of Public Health to join us in preparing today's public health and health services workforce and to complement our departments' research interests. Salary and benefits are commensurate with credentials and experience. Position begins January 2026.

Our faculty are collegial, collaborative, innovative, inclusive, and adaptive, both within and beyond one's home unit. These attributes include commitments to collaborative discourse, interdisciplinary inquiry, and enterprising learning practices.

Our faculty are expected to be innovative, adaptive, engaging teachers across modalities; producers of impactful creative and/or scholarly work; leaders in meaningful service activities to multiple communities. We seek faculty members who are strategic thinkers, engaging our dynamic communities. We are committed to student and faculty success, impact, and access, within an environment that prioritizes inclusiveness. We inspire each other to be critical thinkers and responsible citizens, so that we can pursue fulfilling careers and meaningful lives.

Ball State University lives the values of Beneficence. We invite you to be part of our community.

Ball State University is located in Muncie, Indiana, on an attractive campus 45 miles northeast of Indianapolis. Approximately 20,000 graduate and undergraduate students enroll in one of eight academic colleges that offer 270+ undergraduate and graduate programs. Many of our master's, doctoral, certificate, and specialist degrees rank among the best in the nation. We engage students in educational, research, and creative endeavors that empower our graduates to have fulfilling careers and meaningful lives enriched by lifelong learning and service, while we enhance the economic, environmental, and social vitality of our community, our state, and our world.

Ball State University offers an excellent benefits package for eligible positions. Click here to explore options.

We seek candidates with a doctorate in Public Health, Health Policy, Environmental Health, Bioinformatics, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, or a related discipline. Candidates should have good interpersonal communication skills and the ability to work cooperatively and congenially. Research areas of interest include but are not limited to chronic diseases, obesity, bioinformatics, and genetics. Experience conducting an intervention or clinical trial is desirable. Research on rural issues and concerns especially related to chronic disease and obesity are desirable. Candidates should be skilled in teaching quantitative research methods and analyses, social and behavioral science, health policy, or other public health topics to students with a range of aptitude. Online teaching experience is desirable.

The tenure line rank will be Assistant Professor. Assistant Professor candidates should have an earned doctorate (e.g., PhD, ScD, DrPH) and have teaching or teaching assistant experience and a beginning track record in scholarship with potential for extramural funding. We seek candidates able to contribute to interdisciplinary team science and be conversant with public health practice. Additionally, an MPH or MS from an accredited School of Public Health is desirable. Faculty are expected to work on campus to engage with students, colleagues, and community.

Responsibilities include developing and maintaining an active research program, developing curricula, developing courses, teaching graduate and undergraduate students, mentoring students, and providing service to the university and profession. Faculty may contribute to a graduate health sciences program with a specialization in biostatistics and epidemiology and a health data science concentration of the BS in Data Science in the College of Science and Humanities.

Lifelong learning at Ball State University extends educational engagement beyond the classroom and includes learning for professional development, personal enrichment, or other goals throughout one's lifetime. Faculty may be expected to participate in the university's lifelong learning opportunities when available and may be assigned teaching responsibility in this area as part of their overall responsibilities. Other duties may include service to the university, community, and profession and contributions to student recruitment activities.

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Ball State University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, disability, genetic information, ethnicity, national origin or ancestry, age, protected veteran status, or any legally protected status.

The Department houses accredited undergraduate majors in dietetics, public health, respiratory therapy and radiography, minors in public health, nutrition, and workplace wellness, graduate programs in Nutrition and Dietetics, and Health Science with a track in Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and an accredited Dietetic Internship. Our programs serve 280 degree-seeking students and are supported by 35 full- and part-time faculty. Additionally, the Department offers popular courses on health and nutrition issues that extend our reach well beyond majors and drive total students instructed to among the top 7 departments in the university. We embrace this extraordinary opportunity to educate and improve health of all Ball State University under-graduates.

Our undergraduate public health program provides a unique opportunity for students to fully engage in the regional community and beyond as they intern at a public health agency full time during their final semester. These and other activities help us contribute to the greater university goal 3D, "We collaborate with external partners to implement a regional plan to improve population health and wellbeing" in the univer-sity strategic plan ( Destination 2040, Our Flight Path), and align with the state's Health First Indiana initiative which seeks improvement in health through these core public health services: Tobacco and Vaping Prevention and Cessation, Maternal and Child Health, Trauma and Injury Prevention, Access to and Linkage to Clinical Care, Chronic Disease Prevention and Lead Case Management.

Faculty and student mentees also have access to research laboratories in the Interprofessional Community Clinics with space devoted to assessment, sample collection, processing, storage and analytics. The Department also has a designated demonstration kitchen with attached classroom. The Welcome Home Suite, available for all faculty projects in the College of Health, is equipped with food preparation facilities, and feeding, resting and sample collection spaces. Faculty facilitate interprofessional education through collaborations with the College of Health Healthy Lifestyle Center and Simulation and Skills Laboratories.

A vital resource for Indiana for preparing health professionals, the College of Health is moving boldly forward in making interprofessional education, practice and research its paradigm across its disciplines. The College offers 32 academic programs in 7 units: Departments of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling; Military Science; Nutrition and Health Science; Speech Pathology and Audiology; and Social Work plus the Schools of Nursing and Kinesiology. We are proud to be the academic home for the campus ROTC program, which commissions about 20 officers annually from Ball State and affiliated programs at nearby universities. Our 200 faculty and staff serve nearly 3,000 students. We partner with communities for immersive learning. Our Interprofessional Community Clinics and the Healthy Lifestyle Center offer health services and health education by faculty-supervised students. These clinics operate as an auxiliary to the college, providing an unusual opportunity for students to learn the business of health care. Faculty and students contribute to the evidence base for their respective disciplines.

Our research is community engaged and features the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Human Performance Lab and the Center for Substance Use Research and Community Initiatives. The Fisher Institute for Health and Wellbeing is being re-envisioned as the College's hub of community engagement. Our Health Professions Building, housing most of our academic programs, opened in 2019 with 165,000 square feet and is LEED Gold certified. The School of Kinesiology, in the Health and Physical Activity building, boasts adjacencies to Worthen Arena, Ball State Athletics, and the Jo Ann Gora Student Recreation and Wellness Center. Military Science is located in the historic Ball Gymnasium.

In support of your application for this position, please prepare and submit a cover letter that describes how your qualifications and experience align with the elements of the position description (or leadership profile). In your cover letter, please select one of our enduring values and describe how you have demonstrated a commitment to that value in your professional endeavors.