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 community-based participatory research.

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 16 books, over 425 peer-reviewed research articles, and more than 500 other publications. Sharma is ranked in the top one percentile of scientists globally from 176 subfields and in the top 400 in public health by the prominent academic journal Elsevier.

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, Outstanding Graduate Faculty Leadership Award, and Community Engagement Community-Based Research Faculty Award.