The Future of Public Health in Boston

Craig Andrade is Associate Dean of Practice and Director of the Activist Lab at Boston University’s School of Public Health (SPH) where he is serves to catalyze and encourage SPH’s public health practice portfolio locally and globally among all members of the school community, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners. He is also a member of the Dean’s Cabinet and the Governing Council and chairs the school’s permanent practice committee.

Previously Dr. Andrade was the Director of the Bureau of Family Health & Nutrition (BFHN) at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). BFHN’s programs include Early Intervention (EI), Pregnancy, Infancy and Early Childhood, Children and Youth with Special Health Needs, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program, Home Visiting, Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, Breastfeeding Initiative, Birth Defects Surveillance, Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Program, the Office of Data Translation and Birth Defects Research and Prevention. He also served as Director of the Division of Health Access at DPH, helped found the Racial Equity Leadership Team and Cross-Department Racial Equity Collaborative at DPH and was Associate Dean of Health and Wellness and Director of Student Health Services at Wheaton College in Norton, MA.

He served as critical care, public health and ward nurse at Boston Medical Center; nurse manager and head athletic trainer at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, MA; and was owner/operator of Active Health, a private health and fitness company. Craig is a registered nurse, athletic trainer, licensed massage therapist and strength and condition specialist with masters and doctoral degrees’ in public health from Boston University. His research interests include behavioral risk management and resilience-building among children, adolescents and young adults.

Bisola Ojikutu, MD, MPH is a physician leader, health equity researcher, community advocate and expert in the prevention, care, and treatment of infectious diseases.

As Commissioner of Public Health for the City of Boston and Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission, Dr. Ojikutu is a key advisor to Boston’s Mayor on health issues and builds innovative partnerships across city departments and within Boston’s communities to positively impact the health of all city residents. Among other public health priorities, she is committed to advancing health equity and addressing racism as a public health crisis.

Dr. Ojikutu is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member within the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also maintains an active clinical practice within the Infectious Disease Division at Massachusetts General Hospital where her focus is on patients living with HIV. Dr. Ojikutu is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and an alumna of the Commonwealth Fund Harvard Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.

Carlene Pavlos is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance. As executive director, Carlene leads MPHA in achieving their mission to promote health equity and racial justice. The two primary commitments that guide their work include: dismantling structural racism and listening to the voices of those most impacted by health inequities in developing their priorities. MPHA is a catalyst for community-driven policy change that fosters conditions for people to achieve their full health potential where they live, work, and play.

Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H. is the inaugural Chief Community Health and Health Equity Officer at Mass General Brigham and Executive Director of the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. She leads system-wide strategies to improve health equity and the health of the communities served by Mass General Brigham. She is a pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Conrad Taff Professor of Pediatrics in the Field of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School, and a Professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Taveras is a leading expert in community health equity, childhood obesity, maternal-child health, and health disparities. Her research and community health leadership have influenced the development of national programs to improve health outcomes and eliminate inequities for socially at-risk populations. She is a recipient of the Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award from the Massachusetts Association of Public Health for her work improving health and health care in community-based settings.

Dr. Taveras received her Bachelor of Science and medical degrees from New York University and completed her internship, residency, and chief residency at the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital and holds an MPH from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.