Distinguished Professor Richard Southby

Distinguished Professor Richard Southby was born in Melbourne and educated at Geelong Grammar School. He is currently the dean and distinguished Professor of Global Health Emeritus at The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. He completed his undergraduate degree at The University of Melbourne in 1965; his master’s degree at Cornell University, New York, in 1967 and his Doctor of Philosophy in Social and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in 1973.

From 1967 to 1978, he was Senior Teaching Fellow, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in the newly established Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.  In 1975 he was seconded to be Full-Time Commissioner on the Australian Hospitals and Health Services Commission in Canberra, ACT.

In 1978 he was appointed Director of Health Services Research and Teaching at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, The University of Sydney.

From 1979 to the present, he has been a faculty member at The George Washington University, where he has served as Department Chair, Associate Dean, Dean of the School of Public Health and Executive Dean, The George Washington University Medical Center. He was one of the founding faculty members of the School of Public Health.

Since 1979 he has been Adjunct Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD. He has been Director of the Interagency Institute for Federal Health Leaders (US Army; US Navy; US Air Force; US Public Health Service and the Veterans Administration) since 1984.

Professor Southby is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (UK), the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal Society for Public Health and an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Legal Medicine. He was President of the Australian Public Health Association and President of the Royal Society of Medicine Foundation in the United States. He was also active in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, Army Reserve and has been a Medical Services Corps Officer in the US Army and US Navy Reserve.

He was appointed a Knight of Justice in the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Since 2012, Professor Southby has been an Honorary Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University and is an active member of the USA alumni community.

Professor Southby is married to Dr Janet Southby, Colonel, US Army Nurse Corps (Ret.) and they live in Washington DC.