Deborah Helitzer

Deborah Helitzer is a professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, where she also served as dean from 2017 until July 1, 2024. Her research has focused on health outcome improvements through interventions in communities and in clinical settings. She has collaborated with researchers studying diabetes, injury prevention, teen pregnancy prevention, cancer, and obesity prevention. Prior to joining ASU in August 2017, Helitzer was the Founding Dean of the College of Population Health at the University of New Mexico, where she led the development and implementation of the nation's first undergraduate degree in population health. Since 2009, Professor Helitzer has also focused her attention on mentor and career development among women faculty in academic medical centers. She has been an author on more than 80 publications, three books and eight book chapters and has led or significantly contributed to over $65 million of population health research. As a collaborator, she is nationally renowned for her expertise in theory, measurement, logic models, intervention design and evaluation, childhood adversity, health literacy, and patient-provider communication. She earned her Doctor of Science in International Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and a B.A. in Communications from Washington University.