Paula Braveman

For nearly 30 years, Paula Braveman, M.D., M.P.H., has studied and published extensively on health equity, health disparities, and the social determinants of health and worked to bring attention to these issues in the U.S. and internationally. Her formal training is in family and community medicine and epidemiology, and her research has focused on measuring, documenting, understanding, and addressing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities. During the 1990s, she collaborated with World Health Organization staff to develop an initiative on equity in health in low- and middle-income countries. She directed the research for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national commission on the social determinants of health. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with local, state, federal, and international health agencies to see rigorous research translated into practice for greater health equity. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) in 2002.