Dr. James Shultz Appointed Associate Professor, Named Director of the Comprehensive Drug Research Center

Dr. James Shultz Appointed Associate Professor, Named Director of the Comprehensive Drug Research Center

James Shultz, M.S., Ph.D., was appointed associate professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences on June 1, 2021, as well as director of the Comprehensive Drug Research Center—a distinguished University of Miami Center of Excellence.

“Dr. Shultz brings extensive expertise and scholarship in the areas of disaster public health, disaster behavioral health, and disaster complexity,” said Dr. David J. Lee, professor and chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences. “His work has generated many collaborative opportunities for our students to present and publish on these topics. We are thrilled that he is now associate professor.”

Dr. Shultz has served as an instructor and advisor to many students during his career in the Miller School of Medicine. He has led the Introduction to the Science and Practice of Public Health and Interdisciplinary Health Communications courses and in 2021, prepared and taught an elective course on the public health aspects of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic.

He also has an extensive publication portfolio. Dr. Shultz is the first author of a textbook titled, Public Health: An Introduction to the Science and Practice of Population Health, a textbook that is used by both undergraduate and graduate public health programs nationwide. Public Health: An Introduction to the Science and Practice of Population Health was co-authored by Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. Currently, Dr. Shultz is editing the Oxford Handbook of Complex Disaster Risks and Resilience.

To date, his research and commentaries have also been published in a variety of prestigious journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Health Affairs, as well as in various Lancet journals.  

Dr. Shultz earned a Master of Science in health behavior research in 1986 and a Ph.D. in behavioral epidemiology in 1988 from the University of Minnesota. He first joined the Department of Public Health Sciences in 1989 as an assistant professor and became a tenured associate professor in 1995.

After leaving Miami in late 1999, he returned to the department in 2002 as a voluntary associate professor at the request of Clyde McCoy, Ph.D., chair emeritus and who recently retired from the department as professor. Upon his return, Dr. Shultz was tasked by Dr. McCoy to create a disaster training and research center in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

Over a five-year period, the initiative—named Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center) and housed in the Department of Public Health Sciences—conducted more than 500 full-day disaster behavioral health trainings for more than 20,000 participants nationwide.

Published on June 29, 2021