The Bloustein School will host Dr. Shelley Hearne, President of CityHealth as a Healthy Community Visiting Fellow during the week of December 3, 2018. Dr. Hearne will meet with students and faculty at the school to discuss the innovative efforts she has led across the country focused on the intersection of city/community governance, planning and policy development as mechanisms to advance healthy communities and health equity.
CityHealth is a national non-profit organization that rates the nation’s 40 largest cities based on their progress in adopting an evidence-based policy package. This policy package was derived using a three-part process that considered 1) the evidence-base of policies addressing the key social determinants of health; 2) cities’ jurisdictional authority and precedent; and 3) analysis by a policy advisory committee representing key partners, influencers, and community representatives. The goal was to provide city leaders with a pragmatic, achievable, yet aspirational, package of policies that could align with their city priorities and needs.
As president, Dr. Hearne provides strategic oversight and direction for CityHealth’s big picture—from research design and analysis to partner and policymaker outreach. She 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, and the private and non-profit sectors to tackle some of the thorniest health and environmental issues of the day: from finding solutions in urban health policy to reducing exposure to toxic chemicals in our everyday lives.
Previously, Dr. Hearne served as Senior Advisor and Director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, Managing Director of the Pew Health Group of the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Founding Executive Director of the Trust for America’s which that advanced the development of the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. She received her BA in chemistry and environmental studies from Bowdoin College and her doctorate in environmental health sciences from Columbia University’s School of Public Health.