Kelly A. Gebo was formally installed as the Michael and Lori Milken Dean of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health last Tuesday. The ceremony, held in the Milken Institute SPH Auditorium, featured remarks by GW President Ellen M. Granberg, Milken Institute Chairman Michael Milken, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs John Lach and Harvard University Professor of Medicine Rochelle Walensky.
Gebo’s work “exemplifies the very best of public health, combining research excellence with compassion and collaboration,” Granberg said. “With [her] appointment, we reaffirm GW’s deep commitment to fostering excellence in public health, advancing discovery and improving the well-being of communities here in the District and around the world.”
A physician, scientist and leader in both academia and the broader landscape of public health, Gebo comes to GW from a two-decade career at Johns Hopkins University.
“This is a moment of deep gratitude and even deeper purpose,” Gebo said. “Our school is ready for what’s next—ready to meet a changing world with curiosity, compassion and courage.”
The work of public health professionals is, at its best, “invisible,” Gebo said, “When we succeed, nothing happens. There is no headline for the outbreak prevented or the child who lives to adulthood because of vaccinations. But that invisibility makes our work noble. We save lives behind the scenes, without expectation of applause.”
Gebo, a sports fan, stated her belief that “public health is the ultimate team sport.”
“Progress happens when every player—from the lab to the legislature to the local community—moves together toward a common goal,” she said. “As dean, I see myself as the coach: not the one scoring the points, but the one helping each player see their strengths, find their position and work together at the edges of their capabilities. My job is to create the conditions for collaboration, to lift up the team and to make sure that every win is shared.”
Gebo’s husband, Michael Polydefkis, son, Nicholas, and parents, Pat and Bob, and brother, Matt, were present at the ceremony, while her daughter, Elizabeth, attended remotely from overseas. Gebo thanked her family for their support and reminded her parents of a moment in her childhood when they lobbied for her inclusion as a girl who wanted to play Little League baseball.
“From a very young age you taught us that we could do anything we set our minds to, and that courage, persistence and integrity are learned not in grand moments but in everyday acts of standing up for what is right, and acting with conviction,” she said. “Although I never became the first female Yankee, my dream of becoming a doctor did come true.”
At Milken Institute SPH, knowledge is advanced, policy shaped and communities strengthened “every day,” Gebo said. “And we are doing it together: as one school, one university, one GW, with a shared mission to improve lives…Together, we will invest in discovery, expand opportunities for students and faculty and ensure that every community we serve has a voice in shaping public health solutions.”
Now is a crucial time for leadership in the field of global health, said Milken, who pointed out that public health and medical research are key contributors to economic growth and reiterated the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In 2014, the Milken Institute and Milken Family Foundation were, with the Sumner M. Redstone Charitable Foundation, the contributors of a record-breaking gift package designed to help GW fortify and expand its standing in public health. Lynn R. Goldman was the first to be named the Michael and Lori Milken endowed dean of Milken Institute SPH the following year.
When he met Gebo as Goldman’s potential successor, Milken said, he was immediately impressed by her record and commitment. “What an impressive background Dean Gebo had as a physician, as a scientist, as an educator and what potential she has as a leader, was my first reaction that night,” he said. “Translating research into policy, mentoring future leaders and advancing equity and health outcomes is part of her past, but even more importantly, part of her future.”
Lach pointed to Gebo’s stewardship of the academic enterprise at Johns Hopkins, where, he said, “Colleagues describe her as a mentor who inspires excellence, a collaborator who builds bridges and a leader who pairs vision with humility.”
Gebo’s installation “affirms our university's commitment to academic excellence, service and leadership that improves lives,” Lach said.
Walensky, who appeared via prerecorded video, is a fellow physician-scientist who was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2021 to 2023. She and Gebo met as medical school classmates, both graduating in 1995 and, coincidentally, both marrying within two weeks of graduation. They undertook their residencies together, frequently sharing long overnight calls during which they relied on each other for support. The mid-1990s were “the dark days of HIV-AIDS,” Walensky recalled, but it was also the time of a “pivotal” development: the emergency of HIV combination therapy, which “transform[ed] what had been a devastating, uniformly fatal diagnosis into one that carried hope of survival.”
“That breakthrough shaped our sense of purpose as physicians and as people,” Walensky said. Both chose to specialize in infectious disease.
During Walensky’s time at the head of the CDC, Walensky said, Gebo continued to provide support, guidance and “a source of clarity and calm.” When Gebo was chosen for the Milken Institute SPH deanship, Walensky was “thrilled, both for her and for GW.”
“We are all navigating challenging times as public health leaders,” Walensky said. “As academics and as Americans, it is not always clear how deep the challenges will go or how long the recovery will take. But I know this: When exceptional people lead with courage and integrity, they become the foundation for rebuilding. Kelly is precisely the right person for this moment.”
