Dr. Muge Akpinar-Elci is the dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada, Reno. During her career, Dr. Akpinar-Elci worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. She was a founding director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Environmental and Occupational Health in Grenada. Previously, Dr. Akpinar-Elci served as the chair of the School of Community and Environmental Health at Old Dominion University (ODU), where she created a graduate global health public health certificate and built a new MPH program. At ODU, she also served as associate dean at the College of Health Sciences and director of the Center for Global Health.
Dr. Akpinar-Elci’s research interests include vulnerable populations, global environmental and occupational respiratory diseases, and climate change. She has served on many local, regional, and international boards/committees/workforce groups related to public health, environmental health, and prevention. Since 2020, Dr. Akpinar-Elci has also served as a site visitor for the Council on Education for Public Health.
After medical school, Dr. Akpinar-Elci completed her residency training in pulmonology and a fellowship in occupational medicine in Turkey. She received her MPH from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, LA.