Andrew Balas, former dean of public health and professor of health policy at Saint Louis University, was appointed dean of the College of Health Sciences, effective with the start of the fall semester. Balas had served as the dean of public health at Saint Louis since 2002. Under his leadership, the school achieved the highest enrollment, largest faculty and staff size, lowest ratio of students per faculty, record new contracts and grant awards, and largest corporate donations in the school’s history.

Prior to that position, he was the Weil Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and director of the European Union Center at the University of Missouri.

The author of more than 100 publications, including peer-reviewed scientific articles and textbooks, Balas has also published reviews and editorials in the Journal of the American Medical Association, British Medical Journal and Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. During the past decade, he has been responsible for $10 million of externally funded research as principal investigator/project director.

He succeeds former ODU Dean Cheryl Samuels, who resigned to accept the position of provost at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas.

Balas received an M.D. from Semmelweis University and a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Eotvos University, both in Hungary, and a doctorate in health informatics from the University of Utah School of Medicine.