Public Health/Epidemiologist

Associate Dean for Public Health Integration

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Flint, Michigan

Dr. Debra Furr-Holden is the Associate Dean for Public Health Integration, C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health, and Director of the Division of Public Health at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. She is also the Director of the Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions, funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

She is an epidemiologist and classically-trained public health professional with expertise in behavioral health equity and health disparities research. Dr. Furr-Holden's community-based, action-oriented research has been well received by community stakeholders and driven multiple policy interventions to address some of the nation's greatest public health challenges, especially among racial and ethnic minorities and in racially- and economically-segregated communities. Dr. Furr-Holden's research is grounded in the rubrics of epidemiology and consistent with principles and practices for understanding and intervening on the social determinants of health and health equity.

Among her many awards, she was the recipient of the 2006 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (Office of the White House) and received the 2020 Community-Academic Partnership Award from the Healthy Flint Research Coordinating Center. Dr. Furr-Holden attended the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (BA Natural Sciences and Public Health, 1996) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (PhD, 1999).