Award-Winning Faculty
Faculty practice awards are given annually by the Office of Public Health Practice and Training in recognition of outstanding public health practice efforts. Read more about our award-winning faculty below.
Excellence in U.S. Public Health Practice
Christina Bethell, PhD, MPH, MBA
Partner Organization: Mississippi Thrive! Child Health and Development Project
Dr. Bethell collaborated with the Mississippi Thrive! Child Health and Development Project to lead the development of a state Engagement in Action Framework (EnAct!) to advance an early childhood integrated health system in Mississippi.
Mariana Socal, MD, PhD
Partner Organization: California Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Socal partnered with the California Department of Health and Human Services (CA-DHHS) on the “CalRx” initiative to launch the first state-sponsored low-cost insulins, at 90% lower prices than other insulin products currently available in the US market.
Caitlin Rivers, PhD
Partner Organization: The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Dr. Rivers has been a leader on the global and US response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including creating the Center for Health Security’s daily COVID-19 newsletter and contributing to multiple influential reports that are guiding response activities. Dr. Rivers is co-leading efforts to call for a national infectious disease modeling capability, in recognition of the important role that “outbreak science” plays in informing preparedness and response.
Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD
Partner Organization: The Health Impact Project
Dr. Pollack Porter piloted the health note with the Health Impact Project and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to provide legislators with objective information on how policies in other sectors, such as housing or education, can impact health.
Elizabeth J. Letourneau, PhD
Partner Organization: Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse
Dr. Letourneau’s work on child sexual abuse prevention, specifically the unintended consequences of juvenile sex offender registration and notification policies, has been leveraged to challenge and improve juvenile sex crime policies in several U.S. states.
Excellence in International Public Health Practice
Chiara Altare, PhD
Partner Organizations: WHO, UNHCR
Dr. Altare partnered with the WHO, UNHCR, and various international nongovernmental organizations to strengthen infectious disease monitoring and surveillance systems for Ebola, Cholera and COVID-19 outbreaks to improve operations and evaluation measures globally including communities in challenging settings with limited access and security.
Parul Christian, DrPH; Kristen Hurley, PhD; Keith West, DrPH; Robert Black, MD, MPH; Monica Fox, MHS
Partner Organization: Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Consortium
This faculty team’s work with the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Consortium to advocate and scale the delivery of cost-effective micronutrient supplements to reduce adverse birth outcomes in low and middle income countries spurred the launch of the “Initiative to Advance Implementation Science in Nutrition,” a collaborative effort of the BSPH Center for Human Nutrition and the Vitamin Angel Alliance.
Douglas Storey, PhD, MA
Partner Organization: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs
Dr. Storey served as a key member of the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs’ KAP COVID-19 Dashboard team, providing critical, influential and real time COVID-19 data and insights to the World Health Organization and other organizations to support communication and information dissemination across the world.
Chizoba Barbara Wonodi, MBBS, MPH, DrPH
Partner Organization: World Health Organization (WHO) - Nigeria Country Office
Dr. Wonodi conducted evidence generation and translation to inform COVID-19 and global immunization policy and practice in Nigeria via key roles in the COVID-19 Vaccine Research Ethics (COVER) project, MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership Project, and the Nigerian national technical working group on COVID-19 vaccine introduction.
Jennifer P. Nuzzo, DrPH
Partner Organization: The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Dr. Nuzzo led the development of the Global Health Security (GHS) Index, which assesses a country’s technical, financial, socioeconomic, and political capabilities to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to epidemic threats with international implications. Through her vision and leadership, the first GHS Index was released in Fall 2019 and has since been used and referenced by multiple governments, organizations, news outlets, and experts seeking to better understand country vulnerabilities for epidemic threats, including COVID-19.
Duff Gillespie, PhD
Partner Organization: Advance Family Planning
Dr. Gillespie created the Advance Family Planning advocacy initiative, which has increased the number of family planning policies, allocation of funds for family planning, access to contraceptive services, and the number of people who have received AFP SMART advocacy training.
Alain Bernard Labrique, PhD
Partner Organization: JHU Global mHealth Initiative
Dr. Labrique has served as a technical advisor to NGOs, Ministries of Health, and multilateral agencies and led the development of seminal tools and technical publications that have improved the caliber of Digital Health research and policies.
Wietse A. Tol, PhD
Partner Organization: Peter C. Alderman Foundation
Dr. Tol’s work has been instrumental in the implementation of international humanitarian mental health programs, including the adaptation and evaluation of a guided self-help intervention for South Sudanese refugees as well as creation of an innovative mental health program for post-conflict areas of Uganda.
Excellence in Baltimore Public Health Practice
Danetta Sloan, PhD, MSW, MA
Partner Organization: New Shiloh Baptist Church
Dr. Sloan partnered with Pastors and church leadership in the New Shiloh Baptist Church to develop an advance care planning guide grounded in faith principles and provide palliative care information and services and health care decision-making support to African American individuals, families, and communities.
Susan Sherman, PhD, MPH and Kristin Schneider, PhD
Partner Organization: Maryland Department of Health Center for Harm Reduction Services
Drs. Sherman and Schneider partnered with the Center for Harm Reduction Services at the Maryland Department of Health to evaluate and expand the evidence base to scale up critical programs to reduce drug-related deaths and provide lifesaving interventions to people with substance use disorder in Baltimore.
Megan Latshaw, PhD, MHS
Partner Organization: Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition
Dr. Latshaw collaborated with the Baltimore Transit Equity coalition to examine the intersection of public transit, social vulnerability, air pollution, and health impacts.
Lois Privor-Dumm, MBA
Partner Organization: Baltimore City Health Department
Lois Privor-Dumm collaborated with the Baltimore City Health Department, Morgan State University, and other partners to help increase adult influenza immunization rates in Baltimore City via the Vaccine Access and Acceptance Lives in Unity, Education (VALUE) Baltimore project.
Lee Bone, MPH
Partner Organization: Baltimore CONNECT
Lee Bone has been a lead contributor to Baltimore CONNECT, a network of 20 community-based organizations, faith communities, and health care systems. Through this work, she has built and sustained partnerships with local community members and healthcare organizations to address social determinants and link healthcare with social services.
Keeve Nachman, PhD
Partner Organization: Safe Urban Harvests Project
Dr. Nachman worked with the Safe Urban Harvests Project to provide tailored recommendations on urban soil contamination to urban farmers in Baltimore. He worked to empower the Baltimore community in urban agriculture and has created additional resources on safe urban gardening available to the public.
Darcy Phelan-Emrick, PhD
Partner Organization: Baltimore City Health Department
Dr. Phelan-Emrick led a multitude of important epidemiological analyses for the Baltimore City Health Department, including groundbreaking revision of the City’s Neighborhood Health Profiles with special attention to social determinants in health. In addition, she led the creation of the Community Health Needs Assessment profiles for several hospitals in Baltimore City.
Eileen Marie McDonald, MS
Partner Organization: CARES Mobile Safety Center (MSC)
Eileen directs the CARES MSC, which aims to enhance safety of children in the Baltimore community through fun, interactive exhibits and connect community members to home and traffic safety resources and education.
Policy Impact Award (awarded in collaboration with the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy)
Gigi Kwik Gronvall, PhD
Partner Organization: Former California State Assembly Member Rudy Salas Jr.
Dr. Gigi Gronvall advocated to expand screening measures to limit access to dangerous pathogens that can be used to assemble viruses such as Smallpox and Ebola. Dr. Gronvall’s discussion of this work on National Public Radio (NPR) led to a 3-year partnership with former Assembly member Rudy Salas Jr. (CA-32) to pass a California law in 2022, requiring California University research institutions to only purchase screened gene synthesis products. The is a model law that other states are now looking to adopt.