Jessica G. LaRose, Ph.D., appointed chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
LaRose has served as interim chair since November 2022, prior to the School’s founding.
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 was preparing to join the VCU School of Public Health (SOPH) in 2023, then, when it split into the Departments of Health Policy and Social and Behavior Sciences (SBS) in 2024.
LaRose was recruited to VCU from Brown University in 2012 as an assistant professor in the VCU School of Medicine (SOM). She was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2016 and then to full professor in 2023. In that time as a leader, scholar, and educator, LaRose has advanced the department and played a pivotal role in shaping the School of Public Health.
As interim chair, LaRose led the creation of faculty bylaws and promotion and tenure guidelines, and actively engaged faculty to revise the department mission and create a vision and guiding values, positioning the department to thrive. To invest in department culture, she formed a social and service committee, created a department service award, hosted student listening sessions, held weekly office hours, and established an annual faculty retreat. LaRose also worked to strengthen the department’s research enterprise through bonus incentives and strong support for early career faculty during the transition from SOM to SOPH. These efforts yielded fruit – in two and half years, SBS has received 11 new extramural grant awards and all early career faculty have received new grants.
A committed educator and mentor, LaRose prioritized the education mission and student success during her interim term. She funded dissertation grants and annual student excellence awards, worked collaboratively to strengthen Ph.D. student learning outcomes and quantitative methods requirements, required CIMER mentorship training of all faculty, and supported the creation of a new M.P.H. concentration in health communication.
“Dr. LaRose has done an incredible job leading her team through more than two years of transformation and growth,” said Monica Swahn, Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Public Health. “She has proven she can lead with empathy and grace, while pushing herself and her team to succeed in teaching, service, and research.”
LaRose is an internationally recognized behavioral trialist whose program of research focuses on the design and implementation of interventions to promote physical and psychological health across the lifecourse. Authentic community engagement and partnership with the populations she aims to serve are core tenets of her work. She has had continuous funding for her research since 2007 – currently, she serves as PI or MPI on 3 R01s and she is a co-PI on the $9 million grant to establish a Cancer Control Engagement Research Center in Virginia, announced last year.
Her contributions to the field have been recognized through several awards, including being inducted as a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in 2023 and the David Wheeler Award for Translational Team Science from the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2025. She also serves as a standing member of the NIH Lifestyle Change and Behavioral Health (LCBH) study section. Notably, LaRose is also deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of scholars and practitioners. She currently mentors four graduate students, three postdoctoral fellows, and nine early career faculty members, and has received several awards in recognition of the quality and impact of her mentorship.
“I’m honored to step into the role of Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences,” said LaRose. “I’m elated to continue the work we’ve started. I remain committed to giving the people of SBS my very best as we work to fulfill our collective vision for transformational impact in service of community health and well-being.”
Read more about the department’s recent successes in the Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report.
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