Social Determinants of Health

Dr. Megan DuBois is a term assistant professor in the Department of Global and Community Health. One of her greatest objectives is to help teach, prepare, motivate, and mentor future public health leaders from diverse backgrounds. She believes that learning should result in greater well-being, and the highest level of learning should inspire action and change.

Dr. Davidson Mhonde, Assistant Professor of Global and Community Health, teaches global and public health, health communication, and research methods. Her research focuses on reducing health inequities due to racism and intersecting forms of oppression through applied health communication science.

A new study from Hong Xue and colleagues shows that the county-level association between tobacco retailers and adult smokers can be largely explained by several social determinants of health, including mental and physical health. 

George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services has joined the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network to collaborate on translational research whose goal is to improve health outcomes. The network is a collaboration between universities and diverse, community-based health care delivery systems in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Ms. Karen Brown is the Director for the Northern Virginia Area Health Education Center (AHEC) at George Mason. She has over a decade experience in community and public health, working for regional teen tobacco prevention programs in eastern North Carolina, in addition to her years as a program coordinator and director with Texas AHEC.

Dr. Emily S. Ihara is a professor and chair of the Department of Social Work. Ihara’s research interests focus on interventions, policies, and system changes necessary to eliminate health inequities for vulnerable populations across the life course.

Jhumka Gupta, ScD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health within the College of Public Health. Her research program applies a social epidemiology framework toward advancing the science of gender-based violence against women and girls (e.g. intimate partner violence, sex trafficking).