Christine A. Moranetz, Ph.D., FAWHP
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
School of Public Health   

Dr. Christine A. Moranetz joined the School of Public Health at UNTHSC in Fort Worth as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the spring of 2008. Christine provides strategic vision, expertise and leadership in academic initiatives and curricular development strategies that enhance program and degree offerings in public health. Her faculty appointment as Associate Professor is in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.  

A leader in health promotion and disease prevention education, Dr. Moranetz came to Texas from Kansas City where she served on faculty in the Schools of Medicine at The University of Kansas Medical Center (KU) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). An award-winning educator, she developed innovative curriculum in HIV-prevention and was co-creator of the Dramatic AIDS Education Project  (DAEP) – a collaborative project among KU, UMKC and The Coterie Theatre – a nationally acclaimed youth theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. At KU, Dr. Moranetz was also Interim Director of the MPH Program in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and Director of the Community Health Project (CHP) – a service-learning program for MPH, MHSA and medical students. Both DAEP and CHP have had continuous foundation funding since 1992.  

As a Clinical Associate Professor at KU, Dr. Moranetz was actively engaged in medical education, serving for many years as the Course Director for the Introduction to Clinical Medicine for first-year medical students, a Mentor for fourth-year medical students in a required clerkship, Health of the Public, and faculty for numerous electives, including International Health. As Manager of Women’s Health Initiatives for Truman Medical Centers (TMC) in Kansas City, Missouri, and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in the School of Medicine at UMKC, she directed women’s health promotion programs and services for multiple community audiences. Christine was responsible for linking research, education and creative programs with an innovative faculty-based women’s health care clinic.  With St. Mary’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, Dr. Moranetz developed and implemented health promotion curricula for physicians in the Regional Family Practice Residency program. 

In addition to her academic expertise, Dr. Moranetz brings corporate management experience to UNTHSC. She managed a nationally-recognized health promotion program for Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, where she developed comprehensive behavior modification programs in the areas of weight management, physical activity, stress management and smoking cessation. As director of the health promotion department, she led the Lifewise © Program to receive recognition over several years by the American Hospital Association as an "Innovator Hospital in Community Health Promotion", one of 400 nationally.

A national leader in the area of health promotion, Dr. Moranetz served as President for the Association for Fitness in Business (AFB), which later evolved into the Association for Worksite Health Promotion (AWHP). She actively contributed to the development of the Health Fitness Director certification for the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and was an Advisor/Liaison to the Missouri Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Health. Christine has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM) and was President of the ATPM Foundation. In 2002, Dr. Moranetz was selected to be one of only 29 Secretary’s Primary Health Care Policy Fellows, US Department of Health and Human Services under Tommy G. Thompson. For five years, Dr. Moranetz served on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Center for Living at Duke University. Within the Kansas City community, she served on the Board of Directors of the AIDS Council of Greater Kansas City, The Coterie Theatre, and the Good Samaritan Project, an AIDS service organization. 

Dr. Moranetz, an accomplished public speaker and educator, has received numerous teaching and professional service awards, including the “Student Voice Excellence in Teaching Award” five times while at KU. Under her leadership of the AIDS prevention project, DAEP received the Ribbon of Hope Community Service Award (AIDS Council of Greater Kansas City), the Greater Kansas City Consensus Achiever Award, and the Outstanding Sexuality Educator of the Year Award (Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Western Missouri). Christine served on the Editorial Board of AWHP’s international publication, Worksite Health, and has contributed to various professional and lay publications including the authorship of two chapters for the text: Hospital Health Promotion, and a chapter in Wise Women Speak.     

Dr. Moranetz received her Ph.D. in Education: Exercise Physiology/Nutrition from the University of Kansas, her Masters in Health and Physical Education from Oklahoma State University and her BS in Education from East Central State College (Ada, Oklahoma).  She earned certification by the ACSM as a Health/Fitness Director and was awarded the rank of Fellow in the AWHP. 

Faculty Biography