Galea is most known for his research on social and psychiatric epidemiology. His work has focused on the social causes of health, mental health, and trauma. His peer-reviewed academic articles include publications in JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet.[3] He has also edited and authored books including Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health,[4]The Contagion Next Time,[5] and Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health.[6] He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received awards for this research, including the Michael J McGinnis Award from the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science, the Wade Hampton Frost and the Rema Lapouse Awards from the American Public Health Association, and the Robert S Laufer Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress.[7] He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Glasgow and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.[8]
Early in his career, Galea worked as an emergency physician in Ontario district hospitals and as a project physician for Médecins Sans Frontières in Somalia. He then completed a Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2000, specializing in quantitative methods, followed by doctoral studies in Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health from 2000 to 2003.[9]
Career
Galea worked as a medical epidemiologist at the New York Academy of Medicine's Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies from 2000 to 2005 and was promoted to associate director in 2002. From 2003 to 2005, he also served as an assistant professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. In 2005, he joined the University of Michigan School of Public Health as an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology, promoted to professor in 2008. From 2008-2009, he also directed the Center for Global Health at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. From 2010 to 2014, he was the chair and Gelman Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. He became dean of the Boston University School of Public Health in 2015 and Robert A. Knox Professor in 2016.[10] He has been appointed as the inaugural Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health at Washington University and the Eugene S and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health, with his duties beginning in 2025.[11][12]
Galea, through his research, has expanded the understanding of how social factors affect health, of common mood-anxiety disorders and substance use in populations, and of the population mental health consequences of conflict and mass trauma, including those related to firearms. In 2006, his research on the 2003 SARS outbreak among Toronto healthcare workers was profiled in Time.[16] With over 1,000 peer-reviewed journal articles, his work has achieved an h-index of 158.[3]
Galea's research has highlighted the link between specific social environment factors and the incidence, comorbidity, and progression of anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders. By applying novel analytic methods, he advanced classic psychiatric epidemiology, emphasizing the impact of social and economic forces on these disorders. His work also focused into the causes and effects of accidental drug overdose, leading to public health interventions aimed at reducing overdose-related morbidity and mortality in urban areas.[17][18][19]
Galea developed a dynamic model of social and economic vulnerabilities to explain variations in population health and introduced innovative analytic methods to connect health outcomes with complex social processes.[20][21][22]
Galea's work also documented the mental health sequelae of many of the largest human-made and natural disasters worldwide. His research established that the impact of mass traumatic events extends beyond the immediate victims to populations not directly exposed to the events. Additionally, he also conducted inquiry into the consequences of trauma and conflict on military service members and reservists worldwide.[23][24][25][26]
Methods for Disaster Mental Health Research (2006) ISBN 9781593853105
Macrosocial Determinants of Population Health (2007) ISBN 9780387708119
A Life Course Approach to Mental Disorders (2013) ISBN 9780199657018
Epidemiology Matters: A New Introduction to Methodological Foundations (2014) ISBN 9780199331246
Population Health Science (2016) ISBN 9780190459376
Systems Science and Population Health (2017) ISBN 9780190492397
Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health (2017) ISBN 9780190662417
Urban Health (2019) ISBN 9780190915841
Well: What We Need To Talk About When We Talk About Health (2019) ISBN 9780190916831
Pained: Uncomfortable Conversations about the Public's Health (2020) ISBN 9780197510384
The Contagion Next Time (2021) ISBN 9780197576427
The Commercial Determinants of Health (2022) ISBN 9780197578759
Migration and Health (2022) ISBN 9780226822488
Within Reason: A Liberal Public Health for an Illiberal Time (2023) ISBN 9780226822914
The Turning Point (2024) ISBN 9780197749685
Selected articles
Galea, S., Ahern, J., Resnick, H., Kilpatrick, D., Bucuvalas, M., Gold, J., & Vlahov, D. (2002). Psychological sequelae of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. New England Journal of Medicine, 346(13), 982-987.
Hawryluck, L., Gold, W. L., Robinson, S., Pogorski, S., Galea, S., & Styra, R. (2004). SARS control and psychological effects of quarantine, Toronto, Canada. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 10(7), 1206.
Galea, S., Nandi, A., & Vlahov, D. (2005). The epidemiology of post-traumatic stress disorder after disasters. Epidemiologic Reviews, 27(1), 78-91.
Bonanno, G. A., Galea, S., Bucciarelli, A., & Vlahov, D. (2006). Psychological resilience after disaster: New York City in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attack. Psychological Science, 17(3), 181-186.
Bonanno, G. A., Galea, S., Bucciarelli, A., & Vlahov, D. (2007). What predicts psychological resilience after disaster? The role of demographics, resources, and life stress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75(5), 671.
Galea, S., & Tracy, M. (2007). Participation rates in epidemiologic studies. Annals of Epidemiology, 17(9), 643-653.
Ahern, J., Stuber, J., & Galea, S. (2007). Stigma, discrimination and the health of illicit drug users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 88(2-3), 188-196.
Neria, Y., Nandi, A., & Galea, S. (2008). Post-traumatic stress disorder following disasters: a systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 38(4), 467-480.
Sherrieb, K., Norris, F. H., & Galea, S. (2010). Measuring capacities for community resilience. Social indicators research, 99, 227-247.
Galea, S., Merchant, R. M., & Lurie, N. (2020). The mental health consequences of COVID-19 and physical distancing: the need for prevention and early intervention. JAMA Internal Medicine, 180(6), 817-818.
Ettman, C. K., Abdalla, S. M., Cohen, G. H., Sampson, L., Vivier, P. M., & Galea, S. (2020). Prevalence of depression symptoms in US adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Network Open, 3(9), e2019686-e2019686.
