Lisa Rosen-Metsch '90GS

Dean, School of General Studies
Professor of Sociomedical Sciences

Expertise

Nontraditional student education; medical sociology; epidemiology; HIV/AIDS prevention

Education

Ph.D., University of Florida
M.A., University of Florida
B.A., Columbia University
B.A., List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary

Biography

Lisa Rosen-Metsch '90GS is the 9th Dean of the Columbia School of General Studies. She is the first alumna to serve as Dean of GS. Previously, she was the Chair and Stephen Smith Professor, Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health.

Dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch is a medical sociologist and an internationally recognized scholar whose work has focused on the social determinants of health with special focus on access to care for persons living with HIV and substance use disorders. For the past two decades, her research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has resulted in over 270 publications in high impact journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)Addiction, and the American Journal of Public Health.

Mentoring and teaching have always been a high priority for Dean Rosen-Metsch and she has won numerous teaching awards and co-directs a NIH-funded training program with the Columbia School of Social Work. For the past two years, Dr. Rosen-Metsch has been teaching a seminar course in the Department of Sociology for undergraduates entitled “AIDS and US Society” that explores how the HIV/AIDS epidemic transformed American society. For this past Spring semester, Dr. Rosen-Metsch co-taught an undergraduate seminar course in the Department of Psychology entitled, “Philanthropy and Just Societies.”

In her time as Dean, Columbia GS has significantly increased fundraising for student financial aid scholarships, created and launched new international and community-college dual-degree programs, and created new initiatives focused on social justice and women student veterans.