STATESBORO — After serving as interim dean of the college since July 2019, Stuart Tedders, Ph.D., has been appointed dean of the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University.

The university announced his appointment in a press release on April 17. Tedders is a professor of epidemiology from Perry, Georgia who started working at GS in 2000. A founding member of the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, he later became an associate dean for academic affairs in 2012 before serving as interim dean of the college, according to the press release.

“I am delighted to be selected as the next dean of the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health,” Tedders said in the press release. “Having spent much of my career at Georgia Southern University, I am proud to continue serving an institution with such strong traditions of excellence and a vision to serve rural and underserved communities.”

Tedders earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Georgia Southern College in 1987, then a master’s degree in medical entomology from Clemson University in 1989 and a doctoral degree in public health from the University of South Carolina in 1994, according to the press release.

While working at Mercer University as an assistant professor, Tedders developed an interest in working with rural communities in Georgia, going on to earn the Georgia Rural Health Association’s Georgia Rural Health Researcher of the Year award in 1999, according to the press release.

Carl Reiber, GS provost and vice president for academic affairs, said in the press release that Tedders will expand the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health’s research portfolio and impact on the public.

“It is my pleasure to officially welcome Stuart to the leadership team and I look forward to working with him to move Georgia Southern University forward,” Reiber said in the press release. “We conducted a national search for this vital position and no one emerged who was more qualified or better suited than the man we already had on campus.”

In a “Welcome from the Dean” message on the college’s website, Tedders said his pledge to the faculty, staff and students is to “stay true to the shared values that have served us so well for the past 13 years.”

Blakeley Bartee, The George-Anne Editor-in-Chief, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu