Andrea Heckert, PhD, MPH

Dr. Heckert is a behavioral scientist and social epidemiologist with over 25 years of public health and health services research, evaluation, and capacity building experience. She examines health disparities and social and structural drivers of health to advance health equity and develop a robust health workforce by engaging partners in the co-production of actionable research and evaluation findings and using a range of mixed methods. She has engaged partners and other interested parties to support national initiatives for the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These efforts build off earlier experiences directing National Institutes of Health-funded studies, as well as evaluating and sharing best practices for partner engagement in the planning, conduct, and dissemination of person-centered comparative effectiveness research at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.  Earlier in her career, she worked with CDC-funded community-based organizations, clinics, and health departments to build workforce capacity to adapt, implement, monitor, and evaluate contextually tailored HIV prevention interventions addressing sexual and substance use risk behavior. Dr. Heckert received her PhD in Health Behavior from the University of North Carolina, Gillngs School of Global Public Health, her MPH in community practice and epidemiology from the University of Texas, Health Science Center, School of Public Health, and her BA from the University of Oregon.