Bio

Harris Pastides, PhD, MPH, is president emeritus of the University of South Carolina (USC), where he was responsible for the system’s eight institutions and its over 50,000 students. During his eleven year tenure (2008-2019), USC’s Honors College and undergraduate and graduate international business, public health, engineering, and nursing programs were top-ranked, research funding was increased, and a $1 billion capital campaign goal was surpassed. 

Dr. Pastides has worked with the World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health, and other national and international organizations on higher education and public health issues. He is a member of the Institute of International Education Board of Trustees and chair of the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars Advisory Board (Fulbright Scholar Program). He received one of seven inaugural Fulbright Global Changemaker Awards and has been presented the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He is a member of the national Uber Safety Board, an at-large trustee with the Universities Research Association and is the only non-physician member of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees.  Dr. Pastides is past chair of the Southeastern Athletic Conference and the NCAA Division I Boards of Directors.  He has served as USC’s vice president of research and health sciences and dean of the Arnold School of Public Health and, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was a tenured professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.

In 1974, Dr. Pastides earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from the State University of New York Albany. He has two master’s degrees from Yale—one in public health from the School of Medicine in 1977, the other in epidemiology from the Yale University Graduate School in 1978. He earned his doctorate in epidemiology from the Yale University Graduate School in 1980.