Kimberly Jacob Arriola, Ph.D., MPH, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Rollins School of Public Health and Charles Howard Candler Professor, has been appointed dean of Emory University's Laney Graduate School, effective Sept. 1, 2021.
All of Dr. Arriola's work focuses on improving the health of marginalized populations and communities of color. For example, for the past nine years she has served as principal investigator of an NIH-funded project that seeks to develop and test a culturally-sensitive organ and tissue donation intervention for African American adults. Additionally, she has served as co-investigator for two national multi-site studies that seek to evaluate new services for HIV-infected jail and prison inmates transitioning from the facility to the community. Dr. Arriola also teaches research methods to masters degree students and health promotion Interventions to doctoral students in her department.
A summa cum laude graduate of Spelman, Dr. Arriola earned a masters of art degree in 1996 and a doctoral degree in 1998 from Northeastern University, both in social psychology. She also earned a masters of pubic health degree in epidemiology in 2001 from Emory.
While still in her MPH program, Dr. Arriola was invited to join the Department of Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences at Rollins as a senior faculty associate. In 2010, by then an associate professor, Dr. Arriola began a six-year term as director of graduate studies for Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences.
In 2015, she was promoted to full professor and, a year later, Rollins Dean James Curran announced Arriola’s appointment as associate dean for academic affairs. In 2018, she was named Charles Howard Candler Professor and executive associate dean for academic affairs.
A release published by Emory University highlights Dr. Arriola's strengths:
Dr. Arriola is the dynamic, collaborative, can-do leader we are looking for at Laney Graduate School. Graduate education and research are intimately tied to one another, and both are mission-critical to Emory. Dr. Arriola is an outstanding scholar who cares deeply about graduate and professional students and their success as well as their well-being. I am delighted that we have someone of her caliber to lead Laney Graduate School."
Photo Credit: Emory University