Maryada Vallet, DrPH Faculty in College of Education

Maryada Vallet, DrPH, MPH brings nearly two decades of applied research leadership expertise to her role as Dissertation Chair in Sarasota University’s Doctor of Education program. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Implementation Science, her doctoral research examined how frontline practitioners build pandemic capacity under conditions of uncertainty — using configurational comparative methods to surface what works over time. That same orientation toward rigorous and practice-grounded inquiry shapes how she mentors doctoral candidates: she is less interested in research for its own sake than in research that changes wellbeing and other outcomes for children, communities, and practitioners. Her career has taken her across more than 30 countries, where she has designed, led, and evaluated complex programs in humanitarian response, health systems strengthening, resilience, and multi-sectoral community-based interventions — from education, to nutrition, safe water, and more. She has worked alongside UN agencies, international and local NGOs, and governments to use evidence to shape policy and field practice. She holds a Master of Public Health from UCLA and a Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies and Political Science from Azusa Pacific University. She has recently taken up watercolor painting, loves trail running, and currently splits her time between Tucson, Arizona and Raleigh, North Carolina.