President Biden Appoints Liberian-born, Johns Hopkins Health Disparities Researcher Dr. Lisa Cooper to Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

Monrovia, Liberia-Lisa Cooper, MD, MPH, a pioneering public health disparities researcher, general internist, and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Nursing, has been appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) by President Joe Biden. The White House announced the appointment on Sept. 22, 202.

One of the most prominent White House advisory panels, PCAST counsels the President on developments related to science, innovation, and technology, including health and medicine. In his Executive Order establishing the Council, President Biden highlighted the group’s role in providing pivotal scientific and technological data-driven expertise to inform his Administration’s evidence-based decision making.

“I join all my Johns Hopkins colleagues in celebrating Dr. Lisa Cooper’s well-deserved appointment to PCAST. At a moment when the COVID pandemic has once again exposed the devastating impact of health care disparities, Dr. Cooper brings to her new role decades of pioneering contributions to the field of health care equity and an enduring commitment to uniting bracing research with effective policy and impactful community-based initiatives to ensure equal dignity, opportunity and flourishing for all,” said JHU President Ron Daniels. “We are truly honored to have Dr. Cooper as part of our Hopkins academic community. She will be an extraordinary addition to the renewed and reinvigorated PCAST as she and her peers take up society’s greatest scientific and technological challenges and help build a safer, healthier and more equitable nation and world.”

Cooper is a professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Distinguished Professor. She is also the James F. Fries Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Cooper is the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, a transdisciplinary research center working to fortify healthcare institutions, communities, and health policies with a goal of ending health disparities at the local, national, and international level. She also directs the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, which aims to strengthen health and health equity in the Baltimore community. Cooper joined the Johns Hopkins University faculty in 1994.

Inequities in access to education, health care and economic opportunities are among the most serious problems we face in the U.S. and around the world.

“I’m honored to be invited to serve as a member of President Biden’s President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. I hope to use this opportunity to translate my own and other scientists’ research findings to help ensure that Americans of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds are engaged in and benefit from the creation and the rewards of science and technology.”

Born in Liberia, Cooper credits her early experiences witnessing social inequality with fueling her passion for health equity, and she has dedicated her career to leading health disparities research. Her work has provided some of the earliest evidence of disparities in the relationship quality between doctors and patients from marginalized backgrounds. Cooper has created a range of interventions to foster patient-physician communication and curb disparities in the healthcare system.

Johns Hopkins University, Office of Communications