ATLANTA—Shannon Self-Brown, Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences at the Georgia State University School of Public Health, has been named Distinguished University Professor, an honor that recognizes faculty for their sustained and outstanding record in scholarship and instruction.
Self-Brown, who in 2008 joined the faculty of what was then known as GSU’s Institute of Public Health, has served in several leadership roles in the school, authored or co-authored nearly 100 journal articles and book chapters, and garnered more than $32 million in external grant funding for research that seeks to prevent child maltreatment and family violence.
In addition to leading the Department of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences, she is Co-Director of the National SafeCare Training and Research Center. Housed in the School of Public Health, the center focuses on the dissemination of SafeCare, an evidence-based parenting program for preventing child physical abuse and neglect that has been implemented in eight countries on four continents.
“Dr. Shannon Self-Brown is an extraordinary scholar and leader, and I am thrilled that she has been recognized with this institutional honor,” said School of Public Health Dean and Professor Rodney Lyn. “Her students achieve at the highest levels, and she translates the results of her research into interventions that improve the lives of children and families here in Georgia and around the world.”
Her research, which focuses on child maltreatment prevention, behavioral parenting intervention, youth trauma intervention and implementation science, has been supported by agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health, as well as foundations such as the Annie E Casey Foundation.
She provides students with hands-on research opportunities in her PREVenT Lab (Prevention Research targeting the Elimination of Violence and Trauma), and she has served as a dissertation chair or committee member to 13 Ph.D. students. In addition, she has served as a thesis committee chair or member for nearly 30 Master of Public Health students. She also serves as a grant reviewer for the Department of Justice, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and the National Institutes of Health, as well as member of the editorial board of the journal Child Maltreatment.
Her additional honors include receiving the 2018 School of Public Health Outstanding Service Award, being named a National Institute of Mental Health Implementation Research Institute Fellow and receiving the Society for Prevention Research 2024 Friend of the Early Career Preventionist Network Award in recognition of her support of early career activities and scholars.
“It is a profound honor to be named a Distinguished University Professor,” Self-Brown said. “I am deeply proud to contribute to Georgia State University and mentor the next generation of public health scholars. I am fortunate to pursue work that I am passionate about, striving to enhance the lives of all children by ensuring they have nurturing, safe and healthy home environments.”