Dr. Thomas Dobbs, former state health officer for the Mississippi State Department of Health, has been named Dean of the John D. Bower School of Population Health. Dr. Dobbs, an infectious disease physician, will also be joining the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases.

Dobbs completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also earned a master’s of public health degree at UAB. He practiced in Laurel, MS before joining the State Department of Health in 2008 as a regional health officer and later as the state epidemiologist. From 2016-2018, Dobbs served as the chief medical officer of South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel before returning to MSDH.

During his tenure as state health officer, Dobbs spent time in communities throughout the state, acknowledging the difficulties facing the health of Mississippians. He was a key trusted expert throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and dedicated himself entirely to Mississippi’s prevention and response. As Dean of the School of Population Health, he will oversee three departments – population health science, data science, and preventive medicine – as well as UMMC’s Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities and Jackson Heart Study Graduate Training and Education Center.

Welcome Dr. Dobbs to UMMC and the Department of Medicine!