Kathryn Derose Featured as May 2024 Spotlight Scholar

Kathryn Derose, professor of community health education in the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, has been featured as a Spotlight Scholar for May 2024.

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Derose studies structural determinants of health and evaluates novel interventions in the U.S. and Latin America addressing public health issues such as HIV prevention and care, obesity prevention, and food insecurity. Her research, which utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods, is conducted in partnership with community-based organizations—particularly faith-based organizations—as well as public and private health care providers and institutions, and advocacy and policy groups. 

“I strongly believe that addressing health inequalities is really multifaceted and multisectoral,” she says. “It starts with the perspectives and insights of the community most affected by the issues [and addresses the] dimensions of the issue, as well as the solutions.”

Derose has authored more than 140 scientific publications based on her research and was a 2005 recipient of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Currently, with support from a five-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, she is leading a national, full-scale efficacy trial of an integrated urban gardening and peer nutritional counseling intervention in the Dominican Republic, which seeks to improve HIV care outcomes among people with food insecurity. Derose is also leading another large study, with NIH funding totaling $4.4 million, of an integrated church- and park-based intervention to increase physical activity among Latino adults living in low-income communities in Los Angeles.

“Reducing health inequalities requires addressing the upstream, structural issues that created them,” she says. “This involves deep investments of resources and time.”

To read more about Derose and previous Spotlight Scholars, or to learn about the nomination process, visit the Spotlight Scholars website.