Departmental Affiliations
Sonia Angell, MD, MPH, works on research, policies, and programs at the intersection of population health and care delivery systems, environmental and planetary health, and health equity.
Research Interests
Public Health; Population Health; Health Policy; Health Equity; Systems Change; Social Determinants of Health; Food Systems; Climate Change; Planetary Health
Experiences & Accomplishments
Sonia Angell is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of the Practice of American Health in the Department of Epidemiology.
She is a physician and expert in public health, policy and systems change. She has over 15 years’ experience in government, from the local to global level, and remains current in the practice of primary care medicine.
She joined Johns Hopkins University in January 2022. As chair of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative’s focus area on Food Systems for Health, her work recognizes that sustainability and environmental stewardship are essential features of an ideal system. Through her own research portfolio, she aims to build out public health department capacity in climate and health surveillance, policy, and communications. Additional areas of Dr. Angell’s research focuses on health care delivery resilience, including related to the impact of COVID-19.
Previously, she served as Director of the California Department of Public Health and State Public Health Officer, as Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health, as senior advisor on Global Noncommunicable Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and she was the founding director of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Control Program at the New York City Health Department.
Dr. Angell is board certified in internal medicine. She completed an Internal Medicine residency at Brigham Women's Hospital and is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. She was a Fellow of the second class of the Aspen Institute Health Innovators Program, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Honors & Awards
2023 Distinguished Professor of the Practice, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2020 Chairman’s Award, American Heart Association
2020 Norman Campbell Excellence Award in Population Hypertension Prevention and Control, World Hypertension League
2019 Award of Meritorious Achievement, American Heart Association
2014 Most Impactful Journal Article of 2012, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
2011 Fellowship, American College of Physicians
2009 Distinguished Service Award, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
2001 Partners Award for Excellence, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
1999 Alpha Omega Alpha, University of California San Francisco Medical School
1999 Gold-Headed Cane Society, University of California San Francisco Medical School
Select Publications
I have written on a wide range of public health topics. Here are a few examples.
Angell SY, McConnell MV, Anderson CAM, Bibbins-Domingo K, Boyle DS, Capewell S, Ezzati M, de Ferranti S, Gaskin DJ, Goetzel RZ, Huffman MD, Jones M, Khan YM, Kim S, Kumanyika S, McCray AT, Merritt RK, Milstein B, Mozaffarian D, Norris K, Roth GA, Sacco RL, Saucedo JF, Shay CM, Siedzik D, Saha S, Warner JJ. The American Heart Association 2030 Impact Goal: Presidential Advisory from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2020; 141:00-00.
Angell SY, Shih S, Partnering with Community, Professional, and Policy Organizations, Chapter author in: Howell M, ed. Understanding Healthcare Delivery Science, McGraw Hill, 2020. ISBN 978-1-260-02648-1.
Wright MJ, McKelvey W, Curtis CJ, Thorpe LE, Vesper HW, Kuiper HC, Angell SY. Impact of a municipal policy restricting trans fatty acid use in New York City restaurants on adult serum trans fatty acid levels. American Journal of Public Health. 2019; 109: 634-636.
Anekwe AV, Lent M, Farley SM, Kessler K, Kennelly MO, Angell SY. New York City’s Sodium Warning Regulation: From Conception to Enforcement, American Journal of Public Health. 2019; 109(9), pp.1191–1192.
Olsen MH, Angell SY, Asma S, Boutouyrie P, Burger D, Chirinos JA, Damasceno A, Delles C, Gimenez-Roqueplo AP, Hering D, López-Jaramillo P. A call to action and a lifecourse strategy to address the global burden of raised blood pressure on current and future generations: The Lancet Commission on Hypertension. Lancet. 2016;388(10060):2665-2712.