Purdue HHS announces new head of the Department of Public Health

Written By: Denise Buhrmester, buhrmest@purdue.edu

Randolph (Randy) Hubach

Purdue University’s College of Health and Human Sciences has announced Randolph (Randy) Hubach as the next head of the Department of Public Health (PUBH), effective Jan. 1, 2024. He succeeds Michelle Garrison, who will continue to be an active PUBH faculty member engaged in research and teaching and will also take on a part-time assignment with the vice provost for teaching and learning and the vice provost for student life. 

Hubach came to Purdue in August 2021 as an associate professor of public health. Prior to this, he was on faculty in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Oklahoma State University (OSU) where he also served as associate director of the OSU Master of Public Health program. He has a PhD in health behavior from the Indiana University School of Public Health and has completed fellowships at Fordham University in Bronx, New York, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also a pre-doctoral fellow at the Fenway Institute’s Center for Population Research in LGBT Health in Boston, Massachusetts.

His early-career research and practice experiences included serving as PI on a federally funded, community-based sexual health intervention project; developing managed care programs for local public health and mental health jurisdictions; and serving in leadership positions in multiple community health coalitions and planning processes. As a behavioral scientist, he has gained a practical understanding of the challenges associated with the delivery of public health programs that are scientifically sound and responsive to the needs of diverse communities.

Hubach is director of the Sexual Health Research Lab at Purdue, and his research interests include using community engaged principles to address sexuality-related health disparities, sexual behavior, LGBT population health, and HIV/AIDS within urban and rural communities. He is an active member of the university’s Institutional Review Board and the Purdue University Health Equity Initiatives. Additionally, he sits on the editorial boards of Rural and Remote Health, Archives of Sexual Behavior, and the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling.