Bloomberg School Student Named First Healthy Communities Research Fellow Recipient

On March 15, the Reinvestment Fund (TRF) named Geraldine Pierre, a doctoral candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, as its inaugural Healthy Communities Research Fellow. Pierre is studying Health Services Research in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management. As part of the fellowship, Pierre will be working with TRF for six months, providing research and analytical support to assess the impact of TRF’s healthy communities’ investments.

TRF said it established the fellowship to provide opportunities for up and coming scholars to work alongside practitioners engaged in community investments that have the potential to enhance wealth and economic opportunity for people and places in need.

“This is a wonderful honor for Geraldine and our department,” said Ellen MacKenzie, PhD, Fred and Julie Soper Professor & Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management. “This fellowship enables our students to broaden their academic research experience and gain real world practice on initiatives that complement their area of focus, interests and scholarly expertise. We are thrilled Geraldine was selected for this inaugural Healthy Communities Research Fellowship.”

“The fellowship presents an exciting opportunity for TRF,” shared TRF CEO, Don Hinkle-Brown. “It gives our team the chance to engage with a rising scholar who has a unique combination of academic credentials and interest in healthy communities. It is a relationship grounded in learning and practice. ”

According to TRF, Pierre’s academic background is particularly relevant to its national effort to finance Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and other community health centers. The effort is designed to enhance and increase the stock of community-based primary care in the nation’s most economically distressed areas. Pierre’s dissertation at Johns Hopkins centers around FQHCs and comprehensive delivery models of health care. 

During her fellowship, Pierre (pictured above, center) will work with TRF to add to the organizational intelligence around health care centers and their impact, especially as new investments are considered. Additionally, Pierre will also work with TRF to determine the impact-related information TRF should gather and use to assess investments opportunities as well as to understand whether the impacts we expected were achieved in the projects successfully financed.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health media contact: Tim Parsons at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.