The Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health is excited to announce the appointment of Theodore K. Gideonse, MFA, PhD, as the new Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. Since joining UC Irvine in 2016 as a lecturer, Dr. Gideonse has demonstrated unwavering commitment to advancing educational excellence within Wen Public Health. He has played an integral role in shaping and elevating our undergraduate program through his visionary leadership and commitment to public health education.
Before joining UC Irvine, Dr. Gideonse received his PhD in Anthropology at UC San Diego and spent three years at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine on an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship focused on HIV/AIDS prevention. The research he did as a graduate student and as postdoc was focused on sexual minorities living with HIV who had problems with illegal drugs, particularly methamphetamine. These gay men and transgender women cycled through the jails, unfunded addiction treatment facilities, and homeless encampments, and Dr. Gideonse concluded that their problems were compounded by the ways that public health and healthcare professionals conceptualized and talked about sex, drugs, and mental illness. He wanted to change that by intervening early in their educations – by teaching college students focused on those careers.
After the fellowship ended, he started as a lecturer at Wen Public Health and immediately took over the undergraduate Public Health Practicum and the long-running survey course AIDS Fundamentals. He was appointed assistant professor of teaching in 2018 and earned tenure as an associate professor of teaching in 2023.
As Director of Undergraduate Affairs since 2021, Dr. Gideonse led impactful reforms in curriculum design to ensure our programs remain rigorous, relevant, inclusive, and equitable. Over the last six months, he guided the students who just this month formally established Wen Public Health’s first Undergraduate Student Council, giving students a stronger voice in shaping their educational experience. He has worked tirelessly to train and mentor graduate students as future educators and public health advocates. Dr. Gideonse’s journey at UC Irvine highlights a steadfast commitment to student success and academic excellence, while showing the value of a career in public health practice and research.
In his new role, Dr. Gideonse will further advance educational equity by fostering an environment where academic and professional growth go hand in hand. His approach underscores the essential link between equity in education and health equity across communities, positioning our school to make meaningful contributions on a broader scale.
We are excited to welcome Dr. Gideonse into this leadership position and are confident that his passion and experience will continue to inspire the next generation of public health leaders.
