Challenging the status quo - Toward a transformed health science ecosystem

Dr. Amani Nuru-Jeter is currently the Director for Evidence for Action and Professor for the Community Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public HealthDr. Dr. Nuru-Jeter provides the overarching vision and direction for E4A and its administration, sets program priorities, and has played a pivotal role in shaping the Ways of Knowing Initiative. She is Professor of Community Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, where her research focuses on race and socioeconomic health disparities and the measurement and study of racism as a social determinant of health.

Thomas LaVeist is dean of the Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Principal Investigator for Partners for Advancing Health Equity. His career has been dedicated to understanding the causes of inequity in health and its potential solutions. He has an extensive record of publication in scientific journals as well as numerous mass media outlets and is director and executive producer of “The Skin You’re In,” a documentary series about racial inequalities in health. He is also author of six books including “Minority Population and Health: An introduction to health disparities in the United States” (the first textbook on health disparities). An award-winning research scientist, Dr. LaVeist has received the “Innovation Award” from National Institutes of Health, the “Knowledge Award” from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2013.

Alonzo Plough joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as chief science officer and vice president, Research-Evaluation-Learning in January 2014. He is responsible for aligning all the Foundation’s work with the best evidence from research and practice on improving health equity and incorporating program evaluations into organizational learning. He also oversees the two grantmaking portfolios focused on innovation and emerging issues: Ideas for an Equitable Future and Global Ideas for U.S. solutions. Dr. Plough has been a national leader in public health practice for over 25 years including the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health where he served as the director of emergency preparedness and response, as the director and health officer for the Seattle and King County Department of Public Health, and as the director of public health for Boston. 

Dr. Melody Goodman is the dean and Professor of Biostatistics at the New York University School of Global Public Health and Ways of Knowing Challenging the Norm: Redefining Rigor in Health Research symposium co-organizer. A member of the NYU faculty since 2017, she has held numerous leadership roles at the university prior to her deanship, including Senior Executive Vice Dean, Vice Dean for Research, Associate Dean for Research, and Interim Chair of the Department of Biostatistics. She has over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and two books. She is a biostatistician and research methodologist. Her work is anchored upon moving beyond defining problems and focuses on developing solutions using partner-engaged research approaches. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the inaugural recipient of the Societal Impact Award from the Caucus for Women in Statistics.

Dr. Adrienne Dillard has served as CEO of Kula no nā Po'e Hawai'i, which serves the Native Hawaiian Homestead communities of Papakolea, Kewalo, and Kalawahine, for over two decades. Dr. Dillard earned her Ph.D. in Social Welfare in 2018 from the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa, Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health, focusing on caregivers of kūpuna (elders) with age-related memory loss. She also holds a Bachelor's and Master's in Social Work from Hawai‘i Pacific University. Dr. Dillard is also an adjunct faculty member at UH at Mānoa, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Department of Native Hawaiian Health. She is a founding circle member of the Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Community Health Worker Alliance and chairperson of the Center for Pacific Innovations, Knowledge, and Opportunities (PIKO) Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core, Community Advisory Action Committee. She also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Resource Center for Native Aging and Disability and consults for the National Center for Engagement in Diabetes Equity Research (CEDER). She is board chair for Hawaiian Community Assets (HCA), which supports low—and moderate-income families in achieving economic self-sufficiency. Her extensive experience and commitment to the community have made her an influential advocate for Native Hawaiian health and well-being.

Dr. Monica McLemore is a tenured full professor at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University, and editor-in-chief at Health Equity. Prior to this, she was a tenured, full professor in the Child, Family, and Population Health Department and the Director for the Manning-Price Spratlan Center for Anti-Racism and Equity (CARE) in Nursing at the University of Washington School of Nursing. She has worked her entire career in reproductive health, rights, and justice. She is a preeminent scholar of antiracist birth equity research, community-informed methods, and policy translation. To date, she has 153 peer reviewed articles, OpEds and commentaries and her research has been cited in the Huffington Post, Lavender Health, eight amicus briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States, and four National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine reports, and a data visualization project entitled How To Fix Maternal Mortality: The first step is to stop blaming women that was published in the 2019 Future of Medicine edition of Scientific American. She was named editor of Health Equity Journal in 2022.