School of Public Health dean receives The Association of Former Students 2026 Distinguished Achievement Award for administration

Shawn G. Gibbs, PhD, MBA, CIH, dean of the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, has been honored with the 2026 Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in the administration category. Presented annually since 1955 by Texas A&M and The Association, this award recognizes faculty and staff for their “commitment, performance and positive impact.”

Gibbs, who came to Texas A&M as dean in May 2020 from Indiana University-Bloomington, has been reappointed to a second term as dean through August 2029. An internationally respected certified industrial hygienist, he is a world-renowned expert on high consequence infectious diseases, including COVID-19, H5N1 avian influenza and Ebola virus disease.

Upon his arrival in 2020, Gibbs immediately spearheaded the COVID-19 response for Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Athletics and the Southeastern Conference (SEC), for which he received the SEC’s Michael L. Slive Distinguished Service Award.

Gibbs also began the school’s profound transformation soon after his arrival. Under his guidance, the school achieved its ambitious 10-year strategic plan during his first term as dean. Key milestones include:

• National rankings. The School of Public Health rose 11 spots to No. 27 nationally in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, becoming the top-ranked program in Texas for the first time.
• Enrollment growth. Student enrollment surged 200%, making the school the largest public health school in Texas and the fifth largest in the nation, with over 3,000 students.
• Research expansion. Funded research grew from approximately $9 million to over $43 million in new awards in the most recent fiscal year.
• Academic innovation. Gibbs secured $3.2 million to launch a partnership with Texas A&M-San Antonio, creating an accelerated five-year path to a master’s degree. This greatly expanded the availability of online masters’ degrees, including relaunching of an executive online Master of Health Administration. He also grew the total, full-time faculty headcount from 66 to 115 in just a few years.

In addition, Gibbs applied his Master of Business Administration (MBA) training to convert the school’s financial deficit into a surplus, which allowed for the creation of the school’s first operational reserve fund.

Today, the school’s operating budget has more than doubled, at $48 million. The school is actively planning for renovations of several academic spaces to better serve students and accommodate faculty and staff.

At the national level, Gibbs continues to represent Texas A&M during “Hill Day” visits to Washington, D.C., by both the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) and Texas A&M, briefing legislators on public health priorities. He was recently elected to a three-year term to serve on the ASPPH Board of Directors and serves on several other national boards.

He served as chair of The National Academies workshop on personal protective equipment for influenza A (H5N1) in high-risk farm settings and has been an active contributor to many other national committees.

His approach to administration and research funding has earned him a reputation as a strategic thinker, and he has been asked to serve as an advisor to other leaders across the country.

Gibbs, a first-generation college graduate, earned a bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University, a Master of Science and doctorate from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.