Sheila M. Smythe

Sheila Mary Smythe, M.S., was dean of the Graduate School of Health Sciences later renamed the School of Public Health (today known as the School of Health Sciences and Practice).

Ms. Smythe was appointed dean of the school in 1990 and became an executive vice president of NYMC in 1995. During her tenure at the College, Ms. Smythe doubled the size of the School and helped establish several new programs, including an M.S. in health informatics and clinical research administration; one of the nation’s few medical model M.S. programs in speech-language pathology; and a professional doctorate in physical therapy. She also helped the School achieve accreditation as a School of Public Health.

Prior to NYMC, Ms. Smythe served as president and chief operating officer of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, where she worked for twenty years. She previously served as chief health policy adviser in the United States General Accounting Office.

Ms. Smythe served on a national committee of educators working in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control to promote preventive health research, and she was one of 15 public health leaders who served on the Committee on Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century, appointed by the Institute of Medicine. She was president of the Partnership for a Healthy Population, a center for scholarly focus on community health improvement issues in New York’s Hudson Valley.