Perelman School of Medicine professor Derek Griffith has been named a Penn Integrates Knowledge professor, Penn Interim President Larry Jameson and Provost John Jackson Jr. announced on Sept. 23.
Griffith will join Penn Nursing and Penn Med as the Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Population Health and Health Equity University Professor. The Penn Integrates Knowledge Program was launched in 2004 to promote interdisciplinary study and attract faculty to the University, and PIK professors bridge academic disciplines by working in at least two schools.
Griffith’s research explores health through an interdisciplinary lens, centering on the ways that variables such as gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status interact to shape men’s healthcare. Griffith’s work focuses on Black and Latino men in particular, with the aim of advancing health equity. He has developed community-based lifestyle intervention strategies that target the prevention and control of chronic diseases in middle-aged Black men.
“Our strongest shared commitment at Penn is to make people’s lives better through the impact of innovative research," Jackson told Penn Today. "Derek Griffith’s work embodies this mission, improving health and advancing health equity for communities across the country and around the world."
Griffith is currently chair of Global Action on Men’s Health, a UK-based charity that champions research, advocacy, and education surrounding men’s health. Before coming to Penn, he was a Professor of Health Management and Policy at Georgetown University’s School of Health.
He has also held faculty appointments at Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan, in addition to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Through In Principle and Practice, Penn’s strategic framework, we have targeted health as one of the great challenges and opportunities of our time,” Jameson said in the announcement. “There can be no better time for an interdisciplinary scholar of Professor Griffith’s stature to join our pioneering efforts. His singular focus on translating fresh scholarship to meaningful policy aligns perfectly with Penn’s inventive and engaged ethos.”
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