Michael P. Eriksen
Regents' Professor, Founding Dean of the School of Public Health Health Policy & Behavioral Sciences- Education
Sc.D., 1983, The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
Sc.M., 1976, The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
B.A., 1972, The Johns Hopkins University, Homewood Campus
- Specializations
Tobacco Control, Cancer Prevention, Urban Health, Global Health, Chronic Diseases & Determinants
- Biography
Regents' Professor
Founding Dean of the School of Public Health
Principal Investigator, Prevention Research Center
Principal Investigator, Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (TCORS)Dr. Michael P. Eriksen is a Regents’ Professor and the founding Dean of the School of Public Health at Georgia State, where he led the university’s public health program from 2002 to 2019. Dr. Eriksen received his training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and has had a long and distinguished career in public health.
Dr. Eriksen has been employed in a variety of settings, including academia (University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas), the private sector (Pacific Telephone), state government (Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene), federal government (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and international organizations (World Health Organization). Dr. Eriksen has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles and is co-author of all five editions of The Tobacco Atlas.
Dr. Eriksen was the lead researcher on a $19 million grant, the largest in Georgia State history, to establish one of 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. In 2017, he was awarded $1 million from the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health to develop mobile messaging programs to help smokers quit in China and Vietnam, countries where smoking rates among men are among the highest in the world. Dr. Eriksen has also received $3.75 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish a Prevention Research Center focused on the health and health disparities of refugees and migrants.
As a tenured professor, Dr. Eriksen has taught graduate-level classes in the social and behavioral sciences, urban health, tobacco control and global health. He serves on the American Cancer Society’s Missions Outcomes Committee and is editor-in-chief of the public health journal Health Education Research. During his time at the CDC, Dr. Eriksen was the longest-serving director of the Office on Smoking and Health, where he played a leadership role in developing U.S. tobacco control policy.
He has been designated as a Distinguished Cancer Scholar by the Georgia Cancer Coalition and is a recipient of the World Health Organization Commemorative Medal on Tobacco or Health as well as a Presidential Citation for Meritorious Service, awarded by President Bill Clinton. In 2018, Dr. Eriksen was the inaugural recipient of the Georgia State University Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement, which recognizes an exemplary and longstanding record of achievement in teaching, research, or public service in the international arena.
Dr. Eriksen has been an adviser to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Legacy Foundation and the CDC Foundation. He is a past president and Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Public Health Education and has been a member of the American Public Health Association for over 40 years.