{"id":2,"date":"2008-05-09T21:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-10T01:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med-socialmedicine.sites.unc.edu\/about\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T11:33:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:33:58","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/socialmed\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome from the Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"desktop-only\" style=\"float: right\"><div class=\"container-fluid divisions-container multi-column\">\n    \n            <article class=\"row post entry\">\n            <div class=\"directory-gallery-thumbnail\">\n                                                                                                \t\t\n                    <div class=\"upd-image\">\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"upd_img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/socialmed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/462\/2023\/07\/Mara-Buchbinder_9162_20230419-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Mara Buchbinder, PhD\" height=\"160\" width=\"120\" \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"print_img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/socialmed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/462\/2023\/07\/Mara-Buchbinder_9162_20230419-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n                    <\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n                            <\/div>\n            <div class=\"directory-gallery-content\">\n                <h2 class=\"entry-title\">                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/socialmed\/directory\/mara-buchbinder\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">\n                            Mara Buchbinder                        <\/a>\n                                    <\/h2> \n                \n                                                                    <p>Department Chair and<br \/>\nProfessor<\/p>\n                            <\/div>\n        <\/article>\n\n    \n    <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n        (function($){\n            var entries = $('.entry-content');\n                entries.each(function(index, entry ){\n                    if( $(entry).find('.post-author').length === 0 ) {\n                        $(entry).parents('article.post.entry').css('min-height', '110px');\n                    }\n                });\n        })(jQuery);\n    <\/script>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<p>The Department of Social Medicine promotes teaching, research, and service that addresses the social dimensions of health, illness, and medical care. With faculty trained in the humanities, social sciences, and clinical medicine, Social Medicine is unique among medical school departments in its disciplinary breadth and scope. The department is committed to conducting collaborative and boundary-pushing research; mobilizing concepts and methods from the social sciences and humanities to strengthen and transform medical education; and championing the needs and interests of the communities with which we work.<\/p>\n<p>Social Medicine is a nationally and internationally known leader among School of Medicine based departments of social sciences, bioethics, and humanities. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/socialmed\/education-training\/\">Our pioneering curriculum <\/a>\u00a0covers sociocultural influences on health and medicine, medical ethics, and health care policy and reform. We teach medical students throughout their four years of training, as well as residents, fellows, and hospital staff, providing them with the critical analytic skills to transform medicine from within.\u00a0<em>The Social Medicine Reader<\/em>, an interdisciplinary textbook that emerged from our teaching, is now in its third edition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/socialmed\/people\/\">Our faculty<\/a>\u00a0conduct research on a broad range of topics in clinical medicine, public health, bioethics, health humanities, and health policy. Much of our work seeks to elevate community voices and engage communities in health promotion. Social Medicine also serves as an intellectual haven for humanities and social science scholarship within the School of Medicine.<\/p>\n<p>The department hosts three affiliated centers directed by departmental faculty: the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bioethics.unc.edu\/\">Center for Bioethics<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/thrivingcommunities\">Center for Thriving Communities<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cgs\/\">Center for the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Biotechnology<\/a>. These centers play a crucial role in advancing our research, teaching, and service missions. Social Medicine is the administrative home of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uncmedicalcenter.org\/uncmc\/patients-visitors\/hospital-ethics-committee\/\">Hospital Ethics Committee<\/a>, which provides clinical consultations to medical providers, patients, and families, and ethics education to UNC Hospitals faculty, staff, and students.<\/p>\n<p>The department also serves as a bridge to connect the School of Medicine with other parts of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Our faculty hold secondary appointments in the College of Arts &amp; Sciences, the Adams School of Dentistry, and Gillings School of Global Public Health; collaborate on research and teaching across the university; and mentor undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows across campus.<\/p>\n<p>In sum, Social Medicine is a unique, exciting, and extraordinary department that has been a vital part of the UNC School of Medicine for nearly five decades. We welcome your interest in Social Medicine and hope that you will find an opportunity to connect with us soon.<\/p>\n<p>With best regards,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mara Buchbinder, PhD<\/strong><br \/>\nProfessor and Chair<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Social Medicine promotes teaching, research, and service that addresses the social dimensions of health, illness, and medical care. With faculty trained in the humanities, social sciences, and clinical medicine, Social Medicine is unique among medical school departments in its disciplinary breadth and scope. The department is committed to conducting collaborative and boundary-pushing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/socialmed\/about\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Welcome from the Chair\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8577,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Welcome from the Chair | Department of Social Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Department of Social Medicine plays a major role in the UNC School of Medicine curriculum. 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