Christopher P. Morley has been named chair of the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Upstate Medical University. The appointment was announced by Julio Licinio, senior vice president for academic health affairs and executive dean of College of Medicine.
Morley, a resident of Fayetteville, joined Upstate in 2001 as a principal research support specialist, in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He has held faculty positions at Upstate since 2007, when he joined the Department of Family Medicine as the director of research development, and later vice chair of research.
While at Family Medicine, Morley was an early participant and core faculty member of the Central New York Master of Public Health Program, with a joint appointment to the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He was appointed interim chair of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in January 2016.
Morley will retain his title and appointment in Family Medicine, as well as a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry.
Morley holds a PhD in social science, with a master of arts in public administration and a certificate of advanced study in health services management and policy, from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. His research interests include health disparities and social determinants of health, mental health, cancer prevention, tobacco control and work in psychiatric genetics. His current active research interests focus mainly upon primary care workforce issues and practice improvement.
Morley serves in many national organizations, including committee roles for the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, the North American Primary Care Research Group, and the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). He is appointed to the 18-member Academic Family Medicine Advocacy Committee, which represents all national Family Medicine specialty organizations in legislative and regulatory advocacy as well as the Legislative Advocacy Committee for the ASPPH.
Morley also founded a society-supported medical education journal, PRiMER, which rolled out its first articles in early 2017, and serves on the editorial boards of Family Medicine and the Disability and Health Journal.
