Department of Community Health welcomes new faculty member, Dr. John Fu
This Spring, the Community Health Department is excited to welcome a new faculty member to Tufts, Dr. John Fu. As the instructor for CH 099-01 Applied Regression Analysis for Health Applications, Dr. Fu offers students practice in organizing data to draw conclusions from national health surveys. Outside of the Classroom, Dr. Fu will be a major advisor for undergraduates, contributing years of experience advising graduate students and serving on M PH advising and admissions committees.
Prior to Tufts, Dr. Fu worked as a professor in St. Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice. After teaching a course called Principles of Biostatistics, he developed courses in Categorical Data Analysis, Survival Data Analysis, and Multilevel and Longitudinal Data Analysis which he taught at the graduate level. In addition to teaching, Dr. Fu served as the Biostatistics Department's chair.
Dr. Fu's expertise and research interests in public health are extensive, using both primary data collection and secondary data analysis to investigate current challenges to population health such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and addition. For over a decade, Dr. Fu has studied the relationship between substance abuse and major depressive disorder. Valuing a diverse and collaborative approach to health research, he has served as the principal investigator and co-investigator on studies in both the United States and China. Through the lenses of socio-ecological model of health, Dr. Fu has received National Institutes of Health grants to investigate the multiplicity of contributing causes to psychiatric disorders and disease risk factors. Recently he conducted interdisciplinary studies on smoking cessation among low-income people, financial management behaviors and financial services among financially disadvantaged populations, and the relationship between major depression and non -medical opioid use in the general population.
Passionate about mentoring a future generation of public health practitioners, Dr. Fu emphasizes students' development of quantitative research skills. When asked if he plans to offer research positions to undergraduates, Dr. Fu enthusiastically answered that he "is eager to work with undergraduate students on research projects," encouraging students to contact him for help identifying research questions and statistical approaches to key health issues.
Dr. Fu was drawn to Tufts by its students and the University's commitment to values of diversity, inclusion and antiracism. Excited to join a university that is student-centered and research oriented, Dr. Fu "appreciates working in an interdisciplinary environment with people of all backgrounds." Because Tufts "Students are very eager to meet challenges and learn about community health methodological and statistical skills," Dr. Fu looks forward to "contributing to their learning process."
We hope you'll all join us in welcoming Dr. Fu to Tufts! He hopes students will contact him and is happy to offer guidance on research, statistical interpretation, and applying to graduate public health programs. You can email Dr. Fu at john.fu@tufts.edu.