Our distinguished faculty are experts in their fields. They combine research and professional experiences to offer our students a public health education that will prepare them to be influential leaders. Most importantly, our faculty are accessible. They involve students in their research and serve as both formal and informal mentors. Below are some examples of our faculty at Rollins.
Faculty Highlights
Lisa M. Carlson, MPH, MCHES
Affiliated Instructor, Executive MPH Program
Executive Administrator for Research Programs and Operations, Emory School of Medicine
President, American Public Health Association
“It’s really important to me to know why I get up and go to work every day,” says Lisa M. Carlson. “And the work that we do in public health changes lives and saves lives. I know we are making a difference.” Carlson helps impact public health on a daily basis through the work she does in her role as executive administrator for research programs and operations in the Emory School of Medicine, which involves ...
Benjamin Druss, MD, MPH
Professor and Rosalynn Carter Chair in Mental Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management
Jointly Appointed to the Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences
Ben Druss was going through his residency in general medicine when he first became interested in public health, and more specifically, mental health. He was particularly intrigued by the population health aspects of general medicine, where mental health regularly surfaced as an urgent need. He did a psychiatry residency, which further exposed him to...
Amy Webb Girard, PhD
Associate Professor, Hubert Department of Global Health
Jointly Appointed, Department of Epidemiology
Affiliated Faculty in both the Nutrition and Health Sciences Doctoral Program and Master’s in Development Practice Program, Laney Graduate School
Co-Director, Emory Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health
Co-Director, Emory Urban Health Initiative
All of Girard’s research touches upon the structural and social determinants of health with an emphasis on nutrition. She looks at factors like education, poverty, and food security, and sees how those intersect to impact nutrition and health. Currently, about half of her research is focused in East Africa and examines food-based strategies ...
Fred Grant, PhD, MPH, MBA
Affiliate Professor, Executive MPH Program
“One of my goals is to expose students to a large amount of information in a meaningful way,” says Grant. “But, on top of that, I want to instill in them a profound appreciation of the experience of other people. My catch phrase is, ‘relationships are the currency of the future.’ You can’t be an island in public health. It’s a team effort....
Sophia Hussen, MD, MPH
Research Associate Professor, Hubert Department of Global Health
Secondary Faculty Appointment, Emory School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases
Faculty Physician, Grady Memorial Hospital and Grady Infectious Disease Program
Sophia Hussen was drawn to HIV research because of its biomedical and social complexities. It aligned well with her overlapping interests in public health and medicine, as well as social justice and community involvement.....
Jeb Jones, PhD, MPH, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Executive MPH (EMPH) Program
Thesis Advisor, Applied Epidemiology Track, EMPH Program
“There are a ton of additional opportunities that come along with having an epidemiology degree,” says Jones. “It’s a very versatile degree. You learn a lot about how we can systematically study questions about health and what affects health at a population level. You also learn a lot of really important skills that are applicable to a wide array of positions within public health, as well as to....
Michael Kramer, PhD, MMSc
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Director of Emory Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence
Co-investigator for the RISE Education Core
Kramer is a social epidemiologist whose areas of interest can largely fit under the umbrellas of the social determinants of health, maternal and child health, and spatial patterns of populations and population health. When you’re looking to unravel the complicated, established social, economic, racial, and geographic drivers of health, it can be challenging to find a starting point...
Joanne A. McGriff, MD, MPH, JM
Assistant Research Professor, Hubert Department of Global Health
Associate Director, Center for Global Safe WASH
“I’ve come to understand that you’re not going to be able to serve populations and people and certainly not countries if you don’t pick up as much as you can in terms of your education, training, and the perspective from which you address a problem,” says McGriff...
Ashley Naimi, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology
“In many ways, what my research and teaching are aimed at doing is to bring a degree of healthy skepticism about and humility to science. People think of science as a machine—you put data in and out comes the answers we all need. It’s not that straightforward,” Naimi says.
Noah Scovronick, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health
Noah Scovronick has always held a deep love for nature. Immediately after graduating with his bachelor’s from Emory College, he packed up and relocated to Ecuador where he studied monkeys and frogs in the Amazon. Then, he moved to South Africa—a country where he had previously spent time while abroad as an undergrad —where he earned his master’s in...
Briana Woods-Jaeger, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences
Briana Woods-Jaeger embraces the uncomfortable. Her research in mental health inequities requires her to closely examine daily injustices and traumas, particularly among America’s youngest and most marginalized populations. Though it could be tempting to feel discouraged working in this area, Woods-Jaeger faces her work...