Celebrating the Careers of Steven Kelder, PhD, MPH, and Anna V. Wilkinson, PhD
Published: September 1, 2026
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living celebrate the retirements of Steven Kelder, PhD, MPH, and Anna V. Wilkinson, PhD, whose distinguished careers have advanced research, education, and prevention efforts to improve the health of children, adolescents, and young adults.
Through decades of scholarship, collaboration, mentorship, and service, Drs. Kelder and Wilkinson have helped strengthen the evidence base for public health while preparing the next generation of researchers and practitioners.
Steven Kelder, PhD, MPH
For more than three decades at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, Steven Kelder, PhD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology and the Beth Toby Grossman Distinguished Professor of Spirituality and Healing, has focused on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. His work spans youth health promotion and prevention, including nutrition, physical activity, tobacco and e-cigarette use, violence prevention, traffic safety, and other areas, with a strong emphasis on translating and implementing research in real-world settings. Kelder was a founding member of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living and also instrumental in establishing the School of Public Health in Austin in 2007. He previously served as the Associate Regional Dean at the Austin location between 2013 and 2017.
One of the defining threads of Kelder’s career has been his work with CATCH (Coordinated Approach To Child Health). Over multiple decades, he contributed to the development, evaluation, implementation, and dissemination of CATCH programs that address nutrition and physical activity in schools and communities. His CV documents leadership on CATCH curricula and training for children from early childhood through middle school, as well as extensive research focused on expanding the program across Texas. Today, CATCH reaches more than 15,000 schools globally.
Kelder later helped extend this prevention work to the emerging public health challenge of youth vaping. He led the development of CATCH My Breath, which included curricula for middle and high school students, parent resources, and teacher training. He also served as the Principal Investigator of an NIH-funded randomized trial evaluating the school-based e-cigarette prevention program.
His expertise also informed public health efforts at the national level. Kelder served as a Senior Scientific Editor for the 2016 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report: C-cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults and held leadership roles with the CATCH Global Foundation, including serving as its founding board chairman.
Notably, Steve served as the lead author of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) School Health Index (SHI). This self-assessment and planning tool fundamentally shifted how schools evaluate nutrition, physical activity, and tobacco prevention policies. Used across thousands of schools and dozens of states, his work on the CDC School Health Index directly empowered educators to build healthier environments where children could truly thrive.
Throughout his time at the School of Public Health, Kelder also contributed extensively to education, teaching courses ranging from epidemiology of child and adolescent health to public health nutrition, program evaluation, violence prevention, and research methods. He mentored more than 60 doctoral and more than 80 master’s students, thus making a strong impact on the public health workforce. Dr. Kelder also had a prolific record of publications in peer-reviewed journals and multiple federally funded grants.
Together, these contributions reflect a career centered on a fundamental public health goal: moving evidence beyond academic settings and putting effective prevention strategies into practice for children, families, schools, and communities.
Anna V. Wilkinson, PhD
Anna V. Wilkinson, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, joined UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in Austin and the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living in 2010. Her research has focused on understanding the determinants of nicotine, tobacco, and other substance use among youth and young adults and identifying modifiable risk factors that can inform prevention.
Drawing on her background as a community psychologist and bio-behavioral epidemiologist, Wilkinson has examined how psychosocial influences, genetics, family and peer relationships, mental health, and the broader social environment shape tobacco and substance-use behaviors. A particularly important focus of her work has been understanding these factors among Mexican American youth and young adults, including the roles of culture and acculturation.
Her research in this area has included an NCI Career Development Award examining bio-behavioral smoking profiles among Mexican American youth and leadership and collaboration on studies of emerging tobacco products among Mexican American youth and young adults. She also played a significant role in UTHealth Houston’s Tobacco Center on Regulatory Science (TCORS) grant.
As tobacco products and communication environments evolved, so did Wilkinson’s research. More recently, her work has explored the intersections of social media, mental health, acculturation, and vaping. She serves as the Principal Investigator of an NIH-funded study examining social media, acculturation, and e-cigarette use among Mexican American college students in Texas.
Wilkinson’s contributions extend beyond research. Her record includes sustained mentorship and education, including roles as a mentor on federally funded training programs. At UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, she received the Award for Excellence in Academic Advising in 2021 and the Teaching Innovation Award in 2024, reflecting her commitment to students alongside her scholarly work. She mentored, taught, and advised more than 80 doctoral and master’s students, including capstone and Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) students and academic advisees, thereby making a strong impact on the public health workforce. Dr. Wilkinson authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and received federally funded grants during her tenure as a faculty member.
Across her career, Wilkinson has helped deepen understanding of why young people initiate and continue tobacco and nicotine use, and how social, behavioral, cultural, and environmental factors can be used to inform more effective prevention.
A lasting contribution to public health
Although their areas of expertise and research questions have differed, Drs. Kelder and Wilkinson share a commitment to prevention and to improving the health of young people. Their work has contributed to school and community interventions, tobacco and nicotine research, public health policy and practice, and the training and mentorship of students and emerging researchers.
The School of Public Health and the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living thank Drs. Kelder and Wilkinson for their years of service, scholarship, collaboration, and mentorship, and congratulate them on their retirement.
