Deborah List, M.A., MPH, Ph.D.
Director, Bachelor of Science in Public Health
Department of Population Health and Leadership
School of Health Sciences
Education
Ph.D., Maternal and Child Health, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health
MPH, Public Management and Community Health, Harvard School of Public Health
M.A., Health Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
AB (Honors), Psychology and Community Health, Brown University
About Deborah
Deborah G. List has worked in public health in hospital, government, advocacy and research settings around access and quality of care issues for children with disabilities for over 25 years. She received her undergraduate degree with Honors from Brown University and has a MA in health education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She also holds an MPH in public management and community health from Harvard School of Public Health. In 2001, she completed her PhD at Johns Hopkins University where she researched the impact of maternal stress on the health service use of children with chronic illnesses. Following her degree completion, she served as a policy director at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in child preventative health services and school health.
Dr. List has held teaching and student advising positions at Hunter College, UConn Stamford, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield University and University of New Haven. She lectures across a broad range of policy and population health topics, but her areas of greatest interest are social justice, health equity and accessibility. Additionally, Dr. List has consulted to various organizations on public health policy and program development for vulnerable children and families in CT and the mid-Atlantic, including the CT Office of the Child Advocate and the NY Academy of Medicine.
Dr. List is particularly interested in student mental health and accessibility needs and she has served on the Provost鈥檚 Student Success Committee at Sacred Heart University, was the Co-Chair of the Accessibility Task at Fairfield University and currently sits on the ARC Faculty Liaison Committee at the University of New Haven. She has presented and provides guidance to colleagues at the University of New Haven on accessibility and Universal Design.
See MoreDr. List often engages in research with colleagues at other universities, opening up opportunities for the University of New Haven to partner on projects. Dr. List has worked with clinical colleagues at the Egan School at Fairfield University as Co-PI on a CDC/AACN Public/Population Learning HUB Grant to explore holistic food access in CT, and then transitioned this work to Fairfield County Food Pantry Collaborative Research Project at the Center for Social Impact in 2020 to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food access in CT. This work has been published and presented at conferences.
Currently, Dr. List is working with colleagues at the UConn UCEED to examine the baseline knowledge of disability in students in the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven. Dr. List teaches the only full course at UNH on disability studies and the only course on this topic in a public health program in the state outside of UConn.
Dr. List teaches the senior capstone for the health science and public health students in the School of Health Sciences, which provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in service learning. This course currently works with the Jordan Porco Foundation, using their evidence-based model to run Fresh Check Day, a day of mental health awareness and suicide prevention. This student-run approach is the only implementation of Fresh Check Day done with complete student initiative and planning.
Additionally, Dr. List is actively involved in a number of community organizations. She served as the chair of Wilton Social Services Commission, and is on the advisory board of the Kanarek Center for Palliative and Supportive Nursing Care Education at Fairfield University and the board of the Wilton Youth Council. She also served on the Wilton Public Schools COVID 19 Re-Entry Committee and the Racial Equity and Inclusion Policy Planning Group. Dr. List has been a volunteer for the Make A Wish Foundation for over 30 years.
Dr. List has been recognized for her student support on campus, including being selected as the USGA 2025 Faculty of the Year.
Dr. List is a member of the CT Public Health Association, the American Public Health Association, Association of Higher Education and Disability and Delta Omega.