Dani Fallin Appointed Chair of Department of Mental Health

Dani Fallin, PhD, an internationally known expert in aging and neuropsychiatric disorders, has been appointed the Sylvia and Harold Halpert Professor and chair of the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Fallin’s research focuses on the genetic underpinnings of such conditions and on the integration of genetic susceptibility and environmental risk. She assumed her duties on July 15.

“Dani is an outstanding scientist and faculty member,” said Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “I have no doubt she will continue the tradition of great leadership in the Department and look forward to working with her to take the Department to even greater heights."

A native of Florida, Fallin received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida, Gainesville. She did doctoral work the University of South Florida, Tampa, and received her PhD, in Genetic Epidemiology, from Case Western Reserve University. Fallin first came to Johns Hopkins in 2000 as an assistant professor of Epidemiology in the Bloomberg School. In 2003, she was named co-director of the school’s Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, a position she held for five years. Since 2002, she has served as co-director of the Genetics Core for the Older American Independence Center of Johns Hopkins University and was Director of Genetic Epidemiology within the Department of Epidemiology since 2008. Fallin also directs the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities.

Fallin succeeds William Eaton, PhD, who chaired the Department of Mental Health for 12 years and will remain on the faculty. “I want to take this opportunity to thank Bill Eaton for his years of dedication to the Department and the School. He has been an exemplary leader of an exemplary Department, and the School owes him a great debt of gratitude for his service,” said Klag.

The Bloomberg School’s Department of Mental Health seeks to advance understanding of mental and behavioral disorders, to develop, implement, and evaluate methods to prevent and control these disorders, and to promote mental health in the population. It is the first and the only department devoted to mental health in a school of public health.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health media contact: Tim Parsons at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.