Shelley

A.

Hearne

,

DrPH

Dr. Hearne has spent over three decades as a change maker bent on boosting the health, safety, and sustainability of our planet and the people on it.  She works with foundations, policy-makers, business and non-profit sectors to tackle some of the thorniest health and environmental issues of the day: from pandemic response to health policy strategies for reducing preventable risks in our everyday lives.

In 2021, she became full time faculty as the Deans Sommer and Klag Distinguished Professor of the Practice for Public Health Advocacy and director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy. Dr. Hearne also serves as the executive director of the Forsythia Foundation.

Most recently, she was the founding president of CityHealth (www.CityHealth.org), an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, and executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, representing the lead health officials of the nation's largest cities. She also was managing director of the Pew Health Group of The Pew Charitable Trusts, overseeing its food safety, medical safety, research, and biomedical programs. 

Dr. Hearne founded and led the Trust for America’s Health, a national health advocacy organization dedicated to preventing epidemics, protecting people.

Additional past posts included  Executive Director of the Pew Environmental Health Commission, the Acting Director of the NJ DEP Office of Pollution Prevention, and a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. She was the Chair of the American Public Health Association’s Executive Board and Vice President of the Council on Education for Public Health – the accreditation body for public health schools.

Shelley recently co-authored the book, Policy Engagement, with Dr Keshia Pollack Porter and Katrina Forrest, as part of the Strategic Skills for Public Health Practice series with the de Beaumont Foundation, ASTHO, and APHA Press.

She also has authored many national health reports, from bioterrorism response to obesity. Dr. Hearne has testified regularly before the U.S. Congress on bioterrorism, pandemic preparedness, health tracking and public health funding. She provides continual service to the public health field serving, including National Academy of Science Committees (including the Oversight Committee, Division on Earth and Life Studies) and chairing accreditation site visits to public health schools, such as Harvard and Yale Universities. Most recently she served for ten years on the Radiation Effect Research Foundation in Japan and was a member of Congressional-sponsored NAS investigation that produced the report, Lessons Learned form the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving U.S. Nuclear Plants. She is a Trustee on the Bowdoin College board and chairs their Committee on Inclusion.