The Bloustein School will host Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH as a Healthy Community Visiting Fellow from April 15-26, 2019. Dr. Pollack Porter is nationally recognized for her work in determining connections between the built environment and urban policy and health, health equity and disparities, the intersection of health and social policy, health impact assessment (HIA), and the integration of health into other sectoral policies.
During her visit to the Bloustein School, students and faculty will have the opportunity to discuss the innovative efforts she has directed, including helping states develop and test an approach for rapid HIAs in legislative bodies in which potential health and health equity outcomes of draft legislature is considered in order to more systematically integrate consideration of health into “non-health” legislation. She has also worked on the development of “healthy community” college curricula in order to structure it in ways that are self-sustaining, including continuing education practices.
Dr. Pollack Porter is a Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). She also serves as Director of the School’s Institute for Health and Social Policy, as Director of Research for the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, and as Co-Director of the Center for Health Disparities Solutions Investigator Development Core. Her research informs policies that create safe and healthy environments where people live, work, play, and travel, with an emphasis on the social determinants of health and equity.
Effective July 1, 2019, Dr. Pollack Porter will take on the role as JHSPH’s inaugural Associate Dean for Faculty Development. In this role, she will develop initiatives to enhance the faculty experience, maximize productivity and promote retention by providing opportunities for professional development and skill-building, ensuring adequate mentoring and implementing networking opportunities to foster collaboration and a culture of inclusiveness at all stages of faculty life.
Dr. Pollack Porter completed her BA in Sociology at Tufts University, MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, and PhD in Health and Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Pollack Porter completed a postdoc in evaluation that was jointly sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation before joining the JHSPH faculty in August 2006.