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Peter J. Fos, Ph.D., D.D.S., M.P.H.

Professor of Health Sciences and Research Professor in the minority health and health equity research center

Location:  PSB 307

Office:  504.816.4001

pfos@dillard.edu

Dr. Fos is an internationally recognized decision scientist, health services researcher, public health and health care administration educator, university, and college administrator. Dr. Fos previously served as interim vice chancellor for academic affairs and college provost and cean of the technical civision at Delgado Community College. He also previously served as program director of health policy and systems management at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, School of Public Health from 2011 to 2012. Dr. Fos currently holds an adjunct professor position at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a gratis professor position at LSU Health Sciences Center.

From January 2012 through January 2016, Dr. Fos served as president of the University of New Orleans where he was responsible for a $125 million annual budget, two campuses, five degree granting colleges, the Earl K. Long Library, the 10,000 seat Nat Kiefer Lakefront Arena, 1,100 employees, and 10,000 students. Additionally, he was responsible for the NPR affiliate WWNO-FM. He held the Edward G. Schlieder Endowed Chair in healthcare education and initiatives in the College of Business Administration. Additionally, he held a tenured professor position in the Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling, and Foundations in the College of Education and Human Development.

He served as provost and executive vice president at The University of Texas at Tyler from June 2008 until April 2011. As provost, he had the responsibility for undergraduate and graduate programs, sponsored research, assessment and institutional effectiveness, academic success program, international education, the honors program, and the university registrar. In addition, Dr. Fos oversaw five academic colleges, which included the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business and Technology, Education and Psychology, Engineering and Computer Sciences, and Nursing and Health Sciences, the Graduate School, the Robert R. Muntz Library, and the Palestine and Longview campuses. Dr. Fos also held the Sam A. Lindsey Endowed Chair. This endowed chair is awarded to a recognized scholar in an academic discipline that is of strategic importance to the University. The holder of the chair is a scholar noted for research, teaching, and service.

He began his work at the University of Texas at Tyler after serving as dean of the College of Health at the University of Southern Mississippi for four years.  At the University of Southern Mississippi, Dr. Fos had the responsibility for undergraduate and graduate programs for 3,000 students in seven departments and schools. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Fos has held faculty positions at the UNLV School of Dental Medicine, where he served as chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences and Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Fos spent 17 years at Tulane University in the Department of Health Systems Management and served as assistant dean for undergraduate relations.

Prior to working at the University of Southern Mississippi, Dr. Fos held the position of chief science officer at the Mississippi State Department of Health from January 2003 through June of 2004. As chief science officer, Dr. Fos served as senior deputy to the state health officer and oversaw the Offices of Science and Evaluation and Health Decision Science. The Mississippi State Department of Health has a $280 million annual budget, employs 2,300 people, and operates over 100 health clinics and WIC direct food distribution centers throughout the State of Mississippi.

Dr. Fos has received numerous honors and awards since beginning his academic career. In addition, Dr. Fos has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, technical reports, white papers and book chapters in the areas of health care decision analysis, environmental health, data mining, neural networks, health services research, and managerial epidemiology. He is the principal author of the best-selling textbook, published by Jossey-Bass, a John Wiley Brand, titled “Designing Health Care for Populations: Applied Epidemiology in Health Care Administration”. In addition, he is principal author of “Managerial Epidemiology for Health Care Organizations, 2nd Edition”, also published by John Wiley. The rights to this book have been acquired by King Saud University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for translation into Arabic. The third edition of “Managerial Epidemiology of Health Care Organizations” was published in 2018. He is the author of the book titled “Epidemiology Foundations: the Basic Science of Public Health”, published by Jossey-Bass in December of 2010. He has presented over 50 papers and abstracts at international, national, regional and local conferences.

He has received over $6.5 million in external grants and contracts. 

Dr. Fos received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of New Orleans, a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Dentistry, a Master of Public Health degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a Ph.D. degree in health care decision analysis from Tulane University.

Dr. Fos is a resident of Diamondhead, Mississippi and is married to the former Lori Ann Lege and has two adult children and seven grandchildren.

Research interests:  population health, health system planning and evaluation, managerial epidemiology, decision sciences, health status, health disparities, health equity, health-related quality of life, patient satisfaction, access to health care, applied artificial intelligence, negotiation, clinical effectiveness, statistical process control, data mining and outcomes research.