Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

The theme of this year’s Women’s History Month is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.” This year, Women’s History Month recognizes women who are leading the way toward lasting changes for global challenges, including those beyond environmental concerns. As an exemplar of this theme, we are highlighting the POWER project (Academic PI Jessica […]

Katherine Y. Tossas, Ph.D., M.S., director of Catchment Area Data Analytics (CADA) and associate co-director of global oncology at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, is one of 20 mid-career scientists, engineers and medical professionals selected to the 2026-28 cohort of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine […]

Chloé Jones, Ph.D., M.S. has been with the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences since 2024, when she began working as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Jessica LaRose’s OPT for Health lab. During her time at VCU she has lent her skills to the WE trial (MPIs LaRose, Mosavel), a grassroots, multilevel intervention for cardiometabolic […]

Marcie Wright, Ph.D., M.P.H., has been named interim associate dean for research at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Public Health, where she will provide strategic leadership to advance the School’s growing research enterprise. Wright, an associate professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, began her career at VCU in 2008. She has […]

Here are details, including upcoming application deadlines, for VCU’s fifth M.P.H. focus. or the third time this year, Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Public Health is expanding its Master of Public Health program – this time, with a degree concentration in health communication. Already in 2025, the school introduced a concentration in health policy, and it announced – starting […]

International Open Access Week is observed annually in order to highlight the benefits of free and immediate access to scholarly research worldwide. Open access allows research scholarship to have wide-reaching effects, and grants colleagues the ability to freely share and use research. This year’s theme is “Who Owns Our Knowledge?” – an opportunity to consider […]

VCU Alumni’s 10 Under 10 awards recognizes the noteworthy and distinctive achievements made by alumni who earned their first VCU degree (undergraduate, graduate or professional) within the past 10 years.  Michelle Laws, PhD, who earned her PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences in 2016, has been selected by VCU’s Office of Alumni Relations as one […]

During this year’s National Postdoc Appreciation Week (Sept 15-19) we’re recognizing Karly Casanave-Phillips, Ph.D., M.A., and Chloé Jones, Ph.D., M.S., postdoctoral fellows and mentees of Jessica G. LaRose, Ph.D. Karly Casanave-Phillips, Ph.D., M.A. is a postdoctoral fellow in the Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) T32. She earned her Ph.D. in Sport, […]

Dr. Hsinling Sonya Hung is retiring as of August 31, 2025. Dr. Hung joined VCU in 2016 as assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (then the Department of Health Behavior & Policy). During her time at VCU, she has collaborated as evaluator and co-investigator on a myriad of health promotion projects, including […]

LaRose has served as interim chair since November 2022, prior to the School’s founding. by Maggie Christ Jessica G. LaRose, Ph.D., F.S.B.M., has been named chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences as of August 1, 2025. She took on the role in an interim capacity, first as the Department of Health Behavior and Policy […]