Mindfulness and Public Health Faculty

The Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health seeks to recruit a faculty member in the field of mindfulness and public health. This is an open rank search for a tenure-ladder position, with the academic rank to be determined in accordance with the successful candidate’s experience and productivity. The department and the school are committed to mentoring early career investigators. We are dedicated to upholding the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our hiring and promotion processes, and hope to hire someone who can help promote these values through research, teaching, and mentoring across culturally diverse backgrounds.

Situated within a vibrant school of public health, the Nutrition Department has an exceptional and diverse portfolio of research in public health nutrition and nutrition epidemiology and trains doctoral and postdoctoral students in each of these areas. The faculty are actively engaged in an extensive range of cross-disciplinary research topics. Housed in the department is the newly formed, Thich Nhat Hanh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health. Its mission is to: empower people around the globe to live with purpose, equanimity, and joy through the practice of mindfulness, pursue evidence-based approaches to improve health and well-being through mindfulness by undertaking rigorous, scientific inquiry, and educate and train the Harvard community and beyond through didactic courses, seminars, and trainings in mindfulness. The recruited faculty member will have an active role within the center to further the mission and in developing a strong research program.

The recruit will be joining a rich scholarly environment. The Harvard Chan School and University  community offer countless opportunities for collaboration. At the school there are other dedicated centers focusing on health and happiness along with faculty working across departments whose research interests align with mindfulness and public health. The Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, based in the Department of Social and Behavioral Science, aims to build a rigorous and interdisciplinary science of positive health, happiness, and well-being with a focus on health equity, and to translate the science to influence practice and policy. The Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality at Harvard University aims to integrate issues of religion and spirituality into both academic research and also medical and public health practice. The Initiative brings together faculty, clinicians, students, researchers, and clergy throughout Harvard University to contribute to and increase the understanding of the intersection between religion, spirituality, and health. The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science aims to study and promote human flourishing, and to develop systematic approaches to the synthesis of knowledge across disciplines. The faculty member to be hired in this search will be encouraged to leverage the wealth of opportunities across the School and the University to support their research.

The successful applicant will develop a robust research program that integrates mindfulness into major topics related to public health. Other duties include teaching and mentoring graduate students. The search committee welcomes applications from individuals with a broad range of relevant scholarship and experience in public health and related areas, including but not limited to nutrition, planetary health, economics, psychology, exercise science, and social and behavioral sciences. Applicants should hold a doctoral degree in public health or in a related area or will have a medical degree and formal training in public health. Experience in mindfulness education or practice is desirable.

We seek candidates whose research, teaching and service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to engagement and inclusion of culturally diverse audiences in higher education, and particularly in public health. Applicants from backgrounds historically underrepresented in public health are strongly encouraged to apply.

Inquiries about this position are welcome and should be directed to: Katrina Soriano, Executive Director of Administration, kwright@hsph.harvard.edu