Social Determinants of 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.

Mason’s College of Health and Human Services offers Virginia’s first doctoral degree in public health.

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.

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).

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.