Manoj Sharma

When Manoj Sharma was selected among a large pool of thousands of applicants to attend medical school at the University of Delhi in his native India, his long-range plan wasn’t any different than most of the 272 candidates who made the cut: graduate, slip on the white coat, grab a stethoscope, and heal the sick.

That plan changed, however, when Sharma was introduced to the concept of preventive medicine.

“During medical school, I heard this fable about someone who tried to save people from drowning by jumping into a river and rescuing them one by one,” Sharma says. “Then someone says, ‘Instead of continuing to pull these people out of the river, why don’t you go upstream and stop whoever is throwing them in?’”

In other words, rather than focus on healing the sick, why not use your talents to prevent illness?

Thus began a career in public health that has spanned nearly four decades as a public health practitioner, academic researcher, and educator who has taught and trained more than 6,000 health professionals at 13 national and international universities. 

That includes UNLV, for which Sharma currently serves as professor and chair of the School of Public Health’s Department of Social and Behavioral Health.

While his focus is prepping today’s Rebels to become tomorrow’s public health leaders and difference-makers, the reality is Sharma’s impact stretches far beyond UNLV’s campus. 

For instance, he’s provided leadership on public health projects for a variety of local, state, regional, national, and international agencies in areas such as academics, government, community-based and not-for-profit ventures, and professional organizations. 

A prolific writer, Sharma also has published 15 books and more than 375 peer-reviewed research articles while also securing millions of dollars in funding.

He even developed a fourth-generation health behavior research paradigm called the multi-theory model of health behavior change. The model has been applied globally across more than 100 projects in China, the Fiji Islands, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, and various parts of the United States.

“My focus throughout my career has not been on individual patients but on diagnosing and finding solutions to health problems at the population level,” says Sharma, who also holds a Ph.D. in public health from Ohio State University. “It became clear to me in medical school itself that working one-on-one was not for me, as it would drain a lot of energy while making very little impact. So I chose to move into primary prevention designing population-based interventions that affected a large number of people to change their lifestyles and unhealthy behaviors. This has been satisfying to me both personally and professionally.”

Sharma’s dedication to and impact in the public health field hardly has gone unnoticed. Among a multitude of accolades, he’s received the American Public Health Association’s Lyndon Haviland Mentoring Award; the J. Mayhew Derryberry Award, which recognizes behavioral scientists for outstanding contributions to health education research theory; and the Integrative Complementary and Traditional Health Practices’ Impact Award.

Most recently, Sharma received the 2023 UNLV Community Engagement Award for Community-Based Research. And now he’s the 2023 recipient of the UNLV Alumni Association's Outstanding Faculty Award.

When did you first become interested in medicine, and at what point did you know you wanted to pursue a career in public health?

I became interested in medicine at the very young age of 17. In medical school, every time I moved through my rotations, I wanted to pursue a career in that particular field. Ultimately, I settled for preventive medicine. In doing so, I was a maverick, as preventive medicine was nobody’s first preference.

My passion for health behavior is rooted in one specific lecture during medical school. One of my professors started her talk by asking, “Why do people behave the way they do?” That led me on a journey that continues to this day.

Are there residual effects of the global pandemic positively impacting your profession and the community at large?

The last three years undoubtedly were very challenging for the public health community. Speaking specifically to health behavior research — my area of expertise — we had to deal with growing mental health problems all over the world, including those of our students. Also, social connectedness became an issue, as did disordered eating, altered sleep, and shifting work patterns. Plus we are still dealing with the sequelae of long COVID. 

Obviously, the pandemic brought greater global attention to and awareness about public health and the importance of public health practitioners. We came into the limelight, and that has increased interest among students about pursuing this career — and, at least at present, somewhat more public health funding. 

I think looking at the world at large, the pandemic has been a stepping stone for global health diplomacy and a step in the direction of uniting the world — at least when it comes to combating pandemics. Eventually, this might lead to one world order — something that I dream of.

Describe your journey to UNLV and what has kept you here.

I had been attracted to UNLV for a long time as my mentor from Minnesota, Dr. John Romas, had retired to Las Vegas and I always wanted to be close to him. The other attraction was that UNLV is the most diverse university in the United States. Since arriving at UNLV,  I have thoroughly enjoyed the diversity and the universal respect I’ve been shown as a first-generation immigrant. 

UNLV truly epitomizes unity in diversity, which is so essential for our country.

What does this Outstanding Faculty Award honor mean to you?

It is truly humbling to be bestowed this honor. It means I now have an even greater responsibility to serve my colleagues, students, the Las Vegas community, the state of Nevada, the United States, and the world with all my might. 

I also remain thankful from the bottom of my heart to my parents, family, teachers, colleagues, students, and the society at large without whom this award would not have been possible.