Margie Skeer Named Chair of Public Health and Community Medicine

Professor Margie Skeer, ScD, MPH, MSW, who has served as chair ad interim since January 2024, has been named permanent chair of Tufts University School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health and Community Medicine (PHCM).

“Public health is an imperative element to realizing TUSM’s vision to revolutionize health education and inspire discovery,” remarked Dean Helen Boucher. “Dr. Skeer is ensuring that students and faculty throughout our school, in every program—from MD to biomedical sciences—infuse their practice with the knowledge afforded us by this essential field of health science.”

Public health at Tufts is not just a content area, it’s a core pillar of the health sciences. At its heart, even the most granular biological research aims to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Recognizing the central role of public health within the medical school, Dr. Skeer, in her time as interim chair of the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, has led significant advancements, most notably collaborating with the exceptional faculty of PHCM to strengthen and enhance the Master of Public Health (MPH) program, led by Program Director Kimberly Dong, DrPH, MS.

“Faculty in our department work tirelessly with students and collaborators to improve public health across all communities,” emphasized Dr. Skeer. “It’s an honor to have built my career at Tufts as a member of this incredible department. I’m grateful for the opportunity to step into this permanent role and give back to this very special group of people, whose work is more important than ever.”

Public Health Programming Reimagined

Beginning in the fall of 2025, TUSM’s Master of Public Health Program will become more flexible, accessible, relevant, and career-focused than ever before. New and revised concentrations in Global Health Science and Practice and Health Management and Policy will prepare students for careers in international organizations, non-profits, government agencies, academia, and beyond.

New academic offerings, expanded partnerships, enhanced hands-on learning, and increased financial support are designed to strengthen career preparation and improve accessibility. These changes ensure graduates are equipped to address today’s most pressing public health challenges, especially at a time when skilled and compassionate public health leaders are urgently needed to reverse negative trends.

An Unwavering Mission of Service

As a student, Dr. Skeer never expected to enter the public health profession. She had an eye on a career in business until more exposure to public health and psychology opened the door to an internship at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in New Jersey. The experience changed her path entirely. She listened to heart-wrenching stories of lost childhoods and broken lives. She had found professional purpose.

Today, Dr. Skeer focuses on substance use and addiction with regard for how family engagement and family meals play a positive role in adolescent risk prevention. She has taught community health intervention design to public health students, health communication students, and medical students, and has been the principal investigator on multiple studies to develop and test interventions related to adolescent substance use prevention. These studies include a substance use preventive intervention geared toward parents of 5th-7th grade students in Massachusetts, and a study in rural Idaho to develop a methamphetamine use prevention communication intervention for teens.

“Prevention studies may lack the compelling immediacy of treatment,” Dr. Skeer once explained in an interview, “but they are the foundation of future treatment and prevention strategies.”

Dr. Skeer earned her Doctorate in Social Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, her Master of Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health, and her Master of Social Work from the Boston University School of Social Work. Prior to joining TUSM, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University School of Public Health’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies in Providence, RI. After arriving as an assistant professor in 2011, Dr. Skeer rose to full professor of PHCM and was awarded the inaugural Weiner Hailey Family term professorship in 2019. For over a decade, she has been an active member of the Milton Coalition, a substance use prevention coalition in her community outside Boston. Dr. Skeer is also a member of the Youth Prevention Advisory Board for the Boston Public Health Commission’s Office of Recovery Services and serves on the advisory board for the National Center for Youth Prevention Treatment and Recovery.

The Future Can Be Bright

In a recent article about navigating the future of public health, Dr. Skeer underscored that, “Now more than ever, public health remains essential—and its role in protecting and improving lives has never been more critical.”

To that end, Dr. Skeer intends to continue her leadership of the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine with resolve. “Public health professionals and researchers don’t wait for perfect conditions to act,” she said. “They recognize problems, innovate, and push forward. This field has always thrived on passion, persistence, and the unwavering commitment to making a difference.”

And, at every opportunity, Dr. Skeer involves students and researchers from across disciplines, noting that if TUSM is to achieve its mission to “have a sustained positive impact on the health of individuals, communities, and the world,” we must involve future health science leaders in the work of today. A regular lecturer across TUSM, Dr. Skeer teaches MD students about the power of language and the stigmas that influence the field of substance use disorder diagnosis and treatment.

A mentor who encourages publication and real-world, experiential learning, Dr. Skeer partners with students in research and directed studies, internships, and professional networking. Last fall, the Skeer Lab hosted Tuft’s first Adolescent Substance Use Prevention Symposium that included a panel of six teenagers, in addition to expert researchers in the field. Student volunteers were at the heart of the symposium, which drew over 150 attendees from across the region. Similarly, by working with colleagues across the school and university, Dr. Skeer educates the community about how crucial public health research is to the outcomes of interventions in medicine, engineering, and even the arts.

“Dr. Skeer is a vital part of how Tufts University is fully realizing its potential to meet the rapidly evolving global demands for public health education,” said Cigdem Talgar, Vice Provost for Education at Tufts University, and who, alongside Dr. Skeer, co-chaired the university’s Public Health Task Force. “Dr. Skeer's leadership played a pivotal role in guiding the collaborative development of the Experiential Learning Public Health Network at Tufts (ELEPHANT), which will help the university meet the student needs, workforce demands, and pressing public health dilemmas.”

The ELEPHANT strategy incorporates Drs. Talgar’s and Skeer’s vision to bring public health to the forefront of research and learning across the university and school of medicine communities. It is a scalable framework for integrated transformative learning to cultivate public health changemakers of the future. The plan includes ways for Tufts University to weave experiential, interdisciplinary learning throughout its schools and programs to better equip faculty and students with the tools they need to make lasting, positive impacts across the globe.

“Dr. Skeer has demonstrated an uncompromising commitment to the values and mission of TUSM,” reiterated Dean Boucher. “She has championed interdisciplinary research and fostered collegiality and teamwork within her department and across the school. Most importantly, Dr. Skeer leads by example: opening pathways for a diverse community of students to engage in dynamic learning and service projects throughout their time at Tufts and beyond.