Gina S. Lovasi, PhD, MPH co-directs the Urban Health Collaborative at Drexel University, where she is the Dornsife Associate Professor of Urban Health. She studies the potential health implications of local contexts and policies outside of the health care sector (e.g., urban planning decisions, public transportation infrastructure, regulation and taxation of foods and food-related businesses). By supporting health in the social and physical contexts that people inhabit throughout their lives, multi-sectoral policy approaches can shape individual choices and corresponding chances for a healthy life. Yet, potential health benefits are often either ignored or given insufficient scrutiny. Even ostensibly health promoting measures may have unanticipated negative health effects that offset the anticipated health benefit.

Much of her work is framed around understanding local environments can be changed to prevent cardiorespiratory problems and their risk factors (notably physical activity and excess body weight). However, since other outcomes may also be sensitive to the local environment, her research agenda is occasionally stretched to consider a wider set of health outcomes (ranging from vector-borne illness to cognitive and mental health outcomes).

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