Susan West Marmagas, director of the master of public health degree program and associate professor of practice in the department of population health sciences at Virginia Tech, passed away on December 23, 2018 at her home in Blacksburg, Virginia. She was 51 years old and had suffered from cancer.
Professor Marmagas joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 2008. She played a significant role in the establishment of the university’s public health program and Center for Public Health Practice and Research. She served as assistant director and interim director of the MPH program before being promoted to director in 2017. She also was the instructor for a course on public health and medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke. Marmagas conducted interdisciplinary research on human and environmental health in Central Appalachia and beyond.
Marmagas served on the American Public Health Association’s Joint Policy Committee/Science Board from 2014 to 2017 as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, co-chairing its Regulatory Work Group. She also served as a site visitor for the Council on Education for Public Health and was a fellow with the National Public Health Leadership Institute.
Professor Marmagas held a bachelor’s degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she majored in international studies. She earned a master of public health degree with a concentration in community health education from the University of California, Berkeley.