Biography

Manoj Sharma is a professor and past founding chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Health at UNLV's School of Public Health. His research interests are in developing evidence-based health promotion interventions, stress-coping, mental health, obesity prevention, integrative health, and evaluation.

Sharma, a public health physician, is a master certified health education specialist with certification from the National Commission on Health Education Credentialing. In his career, spanning over 35 years, he has trained or taught over 6,000 health professionals at 13 national and international universities. 

He is also a prolific researcher who has published 17 books, over 460 peer-reviewed research articles, and more than 600 other publications. Sharma is ranked in the top one percent of scientists globally from 176 subfields and in the top 400 in public health by the prominent Dutch publisher Elsevier. Additionally, ScholarGPS ranks him as 20th in stress management and 60th in health education globally.

Sharma has received several prestigious honors. These include the American Public Health Association’s J. Mayhew Derryberry Award, which honors outstanding contributions to health education research theory and recognizes outstanding behavioral scientists, as well as the organization's Lyndon Haviland Mentoring Award and Integrative, Complementary, and Traditional Health Practices Impact Award, and Public Health Education and Health Promotion Distinguished Career Award. He is also the recipient of UNLV’s Harry Reid Silver State Award, Barrick Distinguished Scholar Award, Outstanding Graduate Faculty Leadership Award, and Community Engagement Community-Based Research Faculty Award.