Our Bureau
Waterville, ME
Dr. Nirav D. Shah, the epidemiologist who rose to national prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic as director of the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention, will join Colby in the fall as a visiting professor in the Department of Statistics. Shah will teach courses on public health and will help the College develop its public health program.
At Colby, he will teach a variety of courses, including an introductory level course on public health, an advanced course on epidemics and outbreaks, and a one-month “Jan Plan” course on crisis communications. Shah, who holds medical and law degrees, also will teach a course on the fundamentals of the American legal system.
In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Shah will help Colby formalize its academic program in public health, a central component of the College’s initiative to become a national leader in the sciences among liberal arts colleges and regional hub for scientific innovation.
Shah said he was “over the moon” about becoming a member of the Colby faculty. “This is a fantastic opportunity to train the next generation of public health leaders,” he said. “Colby is well positioned to be a national leader in undergraduate public health education, and I’m honored to help play a role.”
Shah, who received an honorary doctoral degree from Colby in 2022, recently stepped down from a leadership position at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
“As Mainers witnessed throughout the pandemic, Dr. Shah is a natural teacher. He has an extraordinary capacity to synthesize and communicate complex issues. And that he does so with humor, compassion, and a clear commitment to bettering the lives of others is all the more remarkable,” said Colby President David A. Greene.
Before accepting the position at Colby, Shah served as both principal deputy director and acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as acting administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. He was with the federal CDC for two years, following his departure from Maine.
He joined the Maine CDC in June 2019. Prior to joining the Maine CDC, he served as director of the Illinois Department of Health. Before that, Shah was the chief economist of the Ministry of Health of Cambodia during his tenure as a Henry Luce Scholar.
Shah was born in Wisconsin and grew up there. He majored in biology at the University of Louisville, where he received his B.S. He studied economics at Oxford University and then enrolled in medical school at the University of Chicago, where he completed his J.D. and M.D. degrees.
