Hala Madanat, PhD, is the Vice President for Research and Innovation at San Diego State University and Albert W. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Public Health. Dr. Madanat stewards the university’s expansive research enterprise, leads the development of SDSU’s Mission Valley Innovation District, and oversees SDSU’s research advancement, research support services and technology transfer efforts, the SDSU Research Foundation, as well as the university’s start-up incubator, the Zahn Innovation Platform Launchpad.
Under Dr. Madanat’s leadership, SDSU’s research reached $230 million in fiscal 2024 – an almost 65% increase in three years. Dr. Madanat was integral in launching Techstars San Diego Powered by SDSU, a world-class accelerator open to startups from around the world. She led the effort for the first national Academic Health and Human Services Department, a collaboration between SDSU and the County of San Diego Health and Human Services to establish the Live Well Center for Innovation and Leadership to address the need for a diverse workforce pipeline and the health disparities pervasive in the San Diego community today.
From 2016 to 2020, Dr. Madanat served as the Director of SDSU’s School of Public Health. During her tenure, research funding at the school increased 50 percent and its U.S. News ranking rose to No. 23 nationally.
Dr. Madanat is a distinguished professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences. Her research addresses health disparities through community-engaged research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Madanat co-led a $5.5 million contact tracing program funded by the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency aimed at enhancing support in underserved communities and curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus. This provided a platform for additional grants and contracts focused on testing, reopening schools, and vaccine hesitancy.
She serves as the lead principal investigator for the Cancer Research and Education to Advance HealTh Equity (CREATE) funded by the National Cancer Institute. She has led the evaluation of several National Institutes of Health-funded grants and published nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and books.
Dr. Madanat has a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Jordan, a M.S. in Community Health Sciences, and a Ph.D. in Sociology with a minor in Public Health, both from Brigham Young University. Dr. Madanat is also a graduate of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce LEAD Advance program.