PHAA Alumni Spotlight : Dr. Johanna Andrews (MPH '14)

                                                         

Dr. Johanna E. Andrews is a Social and Behavioral Health Researcher and a proud graduate of the first graduating class of Hofstra’s Master of Public (MPH) program. She has over ten years of experience conducting interdisciplinary research studies and leading diverse research teams at the academic and health system level. Her research focuses on racial and ethnic health disparities, food insecurity, healthy food access for communities of color, and stress and coping processes for persons of color in the United States.

Dr. Andrews received a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry from Hofstra University. Her desire to lead community and population health interventions led her to the MPH degree. After conducting informational interviews with various public health professionals, including Hofstra’s MPH Program Director Dr. Corinne Kyriacou, she discerned that this degree was a perfect fit for her and subsequently decided to attend Hofstra’s MPH program. This was one of the best decisions that she made as the MPH program profoundly shaped her professional and career goals. After her first semester in the program, Dr. Andrews developed an interest in health disparities research, and was able to tailor her courses and program activities accordingly. During her time in the program, she served as the Program Coordinator for the inaugural Society of Public Health Advocates (SOPHA) as well as a writer for The Bridge. The MPH program provided Dr. Andrews with her first opportunity to attend the American Public Health Association Conference, where she was invigorated with the idea to create Hofstra’s First Annual Health Equity Symposium, which occurred for two years. Additionally, she was able to develop and refine her research skills by designing her Culminating Experience research project examining the impact of food insecurity on mental health among suburban food pantry clients. As a result of this project, Dr. Andrews was awarded a fellowship at the New York Academy of Medicine to build upon her MPH research to search for a more comprehensive approach to deliver services for the food insecure in Nassau County. The MPH program demonstrably provided her with a robust foundation to thrive as a public health researcher as well as a mentor to other students as she served as a Research Preceptor for two MPH students on their Culminating Experience projects.

Upon graduating with her MPH degree in 2014, Dr. Andrews has held many positions in the field of public health. She served as the Accreditation Support Associate for Hofstra’s MPH Program, a Program Coordinator for the Long Island Federally Qualified Health Centers, and a Senior Research Coordinator in the Department of Medicine at Northwell Health. The skills and proficiencies that she gained in the MPH program helped her to be successful in all of these positions. After graduating from the program, Dr. Andrews also created the MPH Public Health Alumni Association (PHAA) and served as the Founding President as well as a facilitator for the MPH Alumni Mentoring Program. Dr. Andrews recently graduated from the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) with a Ph.D. in Public Health and a concentration in Social and Behavioral Health. During her Ph.D. program, she served as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Center for Health Disparities Research, where she collaborated on various research projects focused on racial and ethnic health disparities. Her dissertation research examined stress and coping in food-insecure African Americans in Clark County, Nevada. She received the Outstanding Dissertation Award for her research and will be presenting on her findings at two upcoming public health conferences this year.