Sarah C. Woodrum, DrPH, MS

Dean

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Public Health

Department:

SPH Central Administration

Classification:

Admin

Assistant Professor

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Public Health

Department:

Health Policy, Management, and Leadership

Classification:

Faculty

• DrPH, University of Illinois at Chicago

Sarah Woodrum, DrPH, serves as the senior associate dean for administration at the West Virginia University School of Public Health in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she oversees the day-to-day and strategic administration and operations. She leads projects and programs in direct consultation with University leadership, participates in policy development and problem resolution, and provides administrative oversight and direction to the school’s areas of finance, research, information technology, development, marketing, communications, and talent and culture. Woodrum teaches leadership courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Leadership. 

She is also a WVU liaison with many community organizations. Some notable leadership positions on prominent community boards include the Morgantown Area Partnership (chair, 2020 and 2023), United Way of Mon and Preston County (president, 2024-2025), Rotary Club of Morgantown (president, 2020-2021) and current assistant district governor for Rotary District 7545. She is also a board member for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the Monongalia County Child Advocacy Center. Woodrum has been an interim dean for the WVU School of Public Health since March 2020. She has more than three decades of healthcare management and strategic operations experience.

Woodrum is a West Virginia native who returned to the state in 2013 to serve in a similar role with the WVU School of Medicine and has maintained a faculty appointment in the WVU School of Public Health since that time. In between the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health administrative roles, she served as the chief operating officer at Mon Health Medical Center, a 189-bed community hospital in Morgantown. Reporting to the chief executive officer, Woodrum had responsibility for the day-to-day management of the hospital. 

Prior to returning to Morgantown, Woodrum was vice president at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois, where she was responsible for the Departments of Surgery, Anesthesia, OB/GYN and the Division of Cardiology. Before that, she worked in various administrative capacities within the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation (Chicago), Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago) and the BJC Health System (St. Louis). Woodrum holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a master’s degree in health systems management from Rush University in Chicago, and a doctorate in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is board-certified in healthcare management as a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.