Vice President and Chief Campus Health Officer
Sarah Van Orman, MD, MMM, FACHA has spent her professional career as a college health physician, university health services administrator, and chief health officer for campus health services. She is currently the Vice President and Chief Campus Health Officer at the University of Southern California where she is also a Chief of the Division of College Health and Clinical Professor of Family Medicine in the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
She earned her Masters of Medical Management (MMM) at Carnegie Mellon University, her MD at Mayo Medical School, and her BA in physics at Carleton College. She did a combined residency training in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Chicago Hospital and Clinics.
Dr. Van Orman is the past President of the American College Health Association (ACHA) where she currently chairs a national committee on the creation of a college health data warehouse. She is also the 2020 recipient of the ACHA Edward Hitchcock award for Outstanding Contributions in College Health. She is also the recipient of the ACHA Ruth Boynton Award for Distinguished Service. She has been recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal as part of 2022’s “Women of Influence in Health Care” cohort, and in the same year, received the USC Presidential Medallion, one of the institution’s highest honors, that is bestowed on individuals who have brought honor and distinction to the university.
Her interests include health equity in student populations and its connection to student educational outcomes, using public health models to improve student well-being, and student health insurance.
Dr. Van Orman provided leadership on campus public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, guiding policy and operational decisions that helped the university safely return to full in-person resumption of activities. She continues to oversee comprehensive medical, mental health, prevention and education initiatives that enhance student wellness, increase access to health services, and address critical issues impacting our student population. In addition to responsibilities to her role for student health, she also assumed the following responsibilities for campus health as of August 1, 2023:
- Campus-wide prevention and health promotion programs and policies that emphasize adoption of evidence-informed and data-driven approaches; supporting individual and organizational wellness;
- Clinical health-related aspects of risk, crisis and emergency response, including emergency preparedness, coordination with local public health entities, and health communications;
- University employee occupational health programs; and
- Clinical direction for employee healthcare benefit plans.
She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on college health and a frequent media commentator on campus health.
She sees patients in USC Student Health (usually on Fridays), and in her leisure time she enjoys spending time outdoors with and without her two very large dogs, Onyx and Ryder.
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