Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Professor Darrell Gaskin, PhD, MS, the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor in Health Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, as has Tener Goodwin Veenema, PhD, MPH, MS, senior associate in the Department of International Health. Eight Johns Hopkins colleagues from the School of Medicine were also elected to the NAM.
Membership in the NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service. The announcement was made during the NAM’s annual meeting on October 18.
“We are proud of Dr. Gaskin and Dr. Veenema and their colleagues across Johns Hopkins for this prestigious recognition,” says Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD, ScM. “Dr. Gaskin’s dedication to using public health principles, social sciences, and medical sciences in mitigating health disparities at every level is more important than ever. Dr. Veenema’s contributions to public health emergency preparedness and response, including health care worker protections and training health care workers during the pandemic, have been truly impressive.”
Gaskin directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions at the Bloomberg School. His work focuses on advancing community, neighborhood, and market-level policies and programs that reduce health disparities. He seeks to identify and understand barriers to care for vulnerable populations, including minority, low-income, uninsured, and other groups; develop and promote policies that will improve access to health care; and to eliminate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in health care. His current research explores the relationship between “place” and health care disparities and examines the impact of community-based interventions on health outcomes for racial/ethnic minorities and low socioeconomic status populations. He is also studying disparities in hospital quality and quality of care for individuals enrolled in Medicaid.
Veenema is an international expert in disaster nursing and public health emergency management with a focus on health systems optimization and health care worker protection during disasters and large-scale biological events such as pandemics and radiation/nuclear disasters. A contributing scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School, she has taught public health preparedness for over 25 years. Veenema is editor of Disaster Nursing and Emergency Preparedness for Chemical, Biological and Radiological Terrorism and Other Hazards (4th ed.), the leading textbook in the field, and developer of the Disaster Nursing app for iPhone and iPad with Unbound Medicine, a medical mobile technology company. Her current research focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis standards of care on the national nursing workforce.
Since the NAM’s founding in 1970, the work and recommendations of its members have shaped health research, practice, and policies that improve health and health outcomes worldwide.
New members are elected by current members through a selective process that recognizes people who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. This year, Gaskin, Veneema, and their Johns Hopkins colleagues were among 100 newly elected members.
Gaskin earned a PhD in health economics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MS in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BA in economics from Brandeis University. Veenema received a PhD in health services research and policy, an MPH, and an MS in nursing administration from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and a BS in nursing from Columbia University.
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