National health equity expert to deliver Perry lecture

Published November 4, 2020

Thomas A. LaVeist, a national expert on equity and health issues, will deliver the School of Public Health and Health Professions’ 32nd Annual J. Warren Perry Lecture on Nov. 13.

The lecture, “My Journey to Discover Why Health Disparities Exist, and What to do about It,” will take place at 11 a.m. via Zoom; registration is required.

LaVeist is dean and Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Health Equity at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. His scholarship has focused on social and behavioral factors influencing racial differences in health outcomes and quality of life for African Americans. Related to that work, he was executive producer of the documentary “The Skin You’re In,” which explores the disparities between the health of Black and white Americans.

Before joining Tulane in 2018, LaVeist was professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. He also spent 25 years on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he was the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor of Health Policy and served as director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions.

LaVeist’s research and writing has examined three key questions:

  • What are the social and behavioral factors that predict the timing of various related health outcomes?
  • What are the social and behavioral factors that explain race differences in health outcomes?
  • What has been the impact of social policy on the health and quality of life of African Americans?

His specific areas of expertise include U.S. health and social policy, the role of race in health research, social factors contributing to mortality, longevity and life expectancy, quantitative and demographic analysis and access, and utilization of health services.

The J. Warren Perry Distinguished Lectureship honors the late J. Warren Perry, founding dean of the School of Health Related Professions, precursor to the School of Public Health and Health Professions. A pioneer of the field of allied health, Perry was a prolific and accomplished scholar, administrator, author and lecturer.