Shelley A. Hearne

SHELLEY A. HEARNE, DrPH, is the inaugural Deans Sommer and Klag Professor of the Practice in Public Health Advocacy in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

She has three decades of experience building and leading public health advocacy, ranging from helping write, pass, and implement new policies at the local, state, and federal levels to creating leading organizations that catalyze change.

Dr. Hearne was the founding Executive Director of the Trust for America’s Health, a national advocacy organization dedicated to preventing epidemics and protecting people. She was the managing director of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Health Group, overseeing its food, biomedical, and financial security programs. Most recently, Dr. Hearne served as the president of City Health, an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente that advances health equity policy improvements in the nation’s largest cities. Additionally, she runs the Forsythia Foundation, an environmental health philanthropy.

Previously, she was the Executive Director of the Pew Environmental Health Commission, director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, the Acting Director of The NJ DEP Office of Pollution Prevention, and a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. She has a long track record of board service, including chair of the American Public Health Associations’ Executive Board, Vice President of the Council on Education for Public Health (the accreditation body for public health schools), ten years on the Radiation Effects Research Foundation board in Japan, and numerous National Academy of Science oversight boards and committees.

Dr. Hearne received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and environmental studies with honors from Bowdoin College and a Doctor of Public Health in environmental health science from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.