SPHIS Home » News » Dr. W. Paul McKinney Retires After Nearly Three Decades with UofL
Dr. W. Paul McKinney Retires After Nearly Three Decades with UofL
With nearly 30 years of service to the University of Louisville, Dr. W. Paul McKinney will be retiring at the end of 2024. Dr. McKinney has been instrumental to the School of Public Health and Information Sciences (SPHIS) as an educator, researcher, leader, and practitioner.
Dr. McKinney was a core member of the team that founded SPHIS in 2002. He shared the following origin story:
“SPHIS grew out of the former Center for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR) that was housed at the Omer Carmichael Elementary School building. That building was soon demolished to make way for expansion at the Brown Cancer Center. The CHSPR was transformed in the late 1990s into the Institute for Public Health Research and moved into a newly renovated MedCenter One, where we had teaching facilities for the school’s first degree program, the Clinical Research, Education and Statistics Training (CREST) program. CREST was funded in part by an NIH K30 grant and later morphed into our Clinical Investigation Sciences (CIS) program (CREST later morphed into the current CIS program). The Institute quickly outgrew MedCenter One and migrated to the fourth floor of the K-Wing, at the same time we officially became the School of Public Health/Health Information Sciences.
As a practicing physician and expert on infectious diseases, Dr. McKinney has been the school’s expert in providing education and guidance on public health preparedness and response, which also resulted in significant scholarly work. He explained, “The research I'm most proud of includes studies of using standardized patients and simulators to teach health professionals about recognition of bioterrorism-related infections and the several studies done collaboratively with SPHIS faculty related to human behaviors, especially mask wearing, associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.” In addition to serving as the school’s Associate Dean for Research, he has been a professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Clinical Investigations Sciences program. Dr. McKinney has taught many classes and always looked forward to connecting with students. He said, “The most enjoyable course I taught was probably the Introduction to Public Health honors class on the Belknap Campus, since the students knew very little about public health coming into the class and soaked up information very eagerly.”
When asked what he will miss most about SPHIS, he said, “the relationships with faculty, staff and students. This has been an outstanding group to work with.” On the other hand, what he will miss least is the temperature of his office “since it consistently runs on the cold side!”
The good news is his frigid office temperature has helped prepare him for the cold winters in Wisconsin where Dr. McKinney and his wife, Karen, have moved to be closer to their adult children. In retirement, he plans to focus on being a grandparent to his four young grandchildren, write the history of SPHIS, and continue to work on research projects at UofL and beyond.
Looking toward the school’s future, Dr. McKinney hopes to see “continued expansion of research activity that emphasizes health equity and social justice, sustained growth of the teaching programs, and a successful transition to a new building in a few years.” He continued, “Given the changes expected with the transition in national leadership, the next few years may pose unforeseen challenges. I think our best strategy is to adhere strongly to core public health values in all of our interactions.”
Please join us in thanking Dr. McKinney for his nearly three decades of service to the university.
Read more about Dr. McKinney’s professional accomplishments:
- Dr. McKinney started his career at the University of Louisville in 1995 as the V.V. Cooke Chair in Medicine and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Health Policy Research.
- His prior training and experience included two years with the Centers for Disease Control as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, five years as a hospital epidemiologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and five years as section chief in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School/Dallas.
- Dr. McKinney helped establish UofL’s first International Travel Medicine Clinic in 1996 and also directed the Institute for Public Health from 1998 until 2002—a vital precursor to SPHIS.
- He helped create the UofL board-recognized Center for Health Hazards Preparedness (CHHP) in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Over 10 years, the CHHP was supported by a series of federal grants totaling more than $10 million; it subsequently served as a Region IV Public Health Training Center.
- When the school was formally established in 2002, Dr. McKinney was appointed as associate dean and later led the successful efforts for its initial accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health. In more recent years, he also served as interim department chair and interim dean.
- In 2023, he was among the top 2% most-cited researchers in the world according to a list compiled by Stanford University and Elsevier.
- He was an attending physician at the Louisville VA for 25 years.
- He has been a member of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, the National Board of Medical Examiners, and the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He served as a contributor, reviewer, and editor for clinical and academic journals.
