Our Featured Fellow for April 2025 is Jacquita N. Johnson, a third-year graduate student pursuing a DrPH in Environmental Health and Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies at Texas A&M University (TAMU). She earned an MPH and Certificate in Maternal and Child Health from TAMU and a Bachelor of Science in Health Administration from Texas Southern University (TSU).

Jacquita’s multi-method dissertation research aims to understand, measure and improve neighborhood-level environmental pollution for Black women through a Black feminist community science praxis. She works with her community partners to co-design, implement, and disseminate the findings from their soil risk assessment, survey, and community conversations. Collectively, they will leverage these findings to improve the community’s health. They have already received a Community Maternal Health Impact Grant to implement a health intervention, designed by Jacquita, using the findings from their research.

Jacquita joined the Bill Anderson Fund (BAF) as a fellow in 2022. Since that time, she has served on the Fundraising and Programming committees and currently serves as Vice-Chairperson of the BAF Student Council, where she supports Fellows’ well-being and works to improve organizational processes. She recently exemplified her creative, interdisciplinary thinking in her first solo-authored publication in a BAF-coordinated special issue with the journal Disaster Prevention and Management.

Jacquita’s practical and research experience spans a diverse range of health topics, including designing dynamic data visuals for Takeda using DE&I data, conducting research on discrimination and cardiovascular mortality as part of the NIH’s GSOAR Program, to dutifully completing her two-year Peace Corps service in South Africa centering life skills and sexual health education among the youth. She also serves as a Public Health Mentor with the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston Chapter, where she is a Fellow For Life. Jacquita has been a speaker and presenter at several conferences, webinars, symposia and in classrooms. Her versatility and breadth of expertise are showcased in not just her academic and professional capacities, but in her service as well. Jacquita maintains her commitment to serve through her role as Membership Liaison of the TSU College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS) Alumni Chapter. While she has chosen to focus her efforts on graduating in August of 2025, she has held numerous roles including two-term Vice President of the TSU COPHS Alumni Chapter, Co-Chair of TAMU’s Health and Wellness Ambassadors, Secretary of TAMU’s Community Health Organization, Student Co-Chair of the Society for Public Health Education’s Annual Conference, and Member of the National Association of Doctors of Public Health’s Policy Committee.

Jacquita’s academic accomplishments, research, and commitment to public health and community engagement are motivated by her call to not just serve, but be a catalyst for change. She recognizes that health has been used as a tool to oppress, but she believes that it can be used as a tool for social change. She dedicates herself to realizing this goal.

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Black women’s health, Public health, Environmental justice, Black feminist thought