Kurt Ribisl began his role as dean of the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington on March 1. He has goals to bolster research, secure more funding and work alongside the state health department.
Ribisl succeeded interim dean Suresh Viswanathan, who held the position since July 2025, following former dean David Allison’s departure.
“I was very interested in the Indiana University Bloomington position, because here is, I just think, an excellent school with a large student enrollment,” Ribisl said in an interview with the Indiana Daily Student.
Ribisl said he started the application process in October 2025 and had multiple interviews with various members of IU administration, including President Pamela Whitten and other schools’ deans and department chairs.
Throughout the process, Ribisl met with other School of Public Health faculty members to discuss the future of the school should he become dean.
Following those interviews, Ribisl was hired under former IU Bloomington Provost Rahul Shrivastav and Chancellor David Reingold.
“It’s a pretty rigorous process,” Ribisl said. “It’s a big job, and so that’s, I think, why they really want to vet the person.”
The dean serves over 3,700 undergraduate students and around 450 graduate students, acting as the school’s chief academic and administrative officer. The school has five departments, Applied Health Science, Environmental and Occupational Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Kinesiology and Health and Wellness Design.
Ribisl will manage the annual $55 million budget and reports to the provost and executive vice chancellor. As of February 2026, John Ciorciari is the interim provost and executive vice chancellor.
Prior to this role, Ribisl worked at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for nearly 30 years. He worked as a professor and health behavior department chair, which was a good launching pad for his career, he said.
During his time there, he taught two courses titled, Theories of Changing Health Behaviors and Italian Food, Culture and Health. Ribisl said he hopes to teach Italian Food, Culture and Health here at IU.
“I worked at the Michigan department of health as a graduate student, and that got me very interested in the field of public health,” Ribisl said.
Ribisl served as a member of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products from 2012-16. The committee reviews and evaluates the safety, dependence and health issues related to tobacco products.
In the School of Public Health, Ribisl will work alongside other senior faculty members and the leadership team.
“We have an outstanding senior leadership team,” Ribisl said. “That includes people who work in the dean’s office.”
For the future of the school, Ribisl hopes to work on improving engagement with the Indiana Department of Health surrounding public health issues, bolstering research, securing external grants for the school, focusing on maximizing student success and increasing fundraising, he said.
The school researches sexual health promotion, AIDS/STD prevention, biostatistics, underwater science and nutrition and exercise.
“We are going to be working to really raise money for student scholarships that again goes back to student success,” Ribisl said.
The dean also hopes to better connect the school with its alumni base. The School of Public Health has one of the largest living alumni bases of public health schools in the country, with over 32,000 members.
“I’m very excited about the future of the School of Public Health,” Ribisl said.
Ribisl said he hopes to accomplish these goals by hiring additional staff in the school, such as more academic advisors, professors and faculty members.
The school currently has more than 375 faculty and staff members, according to the office of the provost and executive vice chancellor website.
Ribisl said contracts for dean positions are typically four to five years and then considered for renewal.
Ribisl said there will be several events for him to meet with students and faculty members, one being a year in review presentation in April, where he will answer questions from faculty and staff about the status of the school. Ribisl said there will also be a welcome event for students once the building renovation is complete, which is expected to be in the fall of 2026.
