Derek M. Griffith, PhD is the Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Population Health and Health Equity University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, he also is a Fellow and Senior Advisor on Health Equity and Anti-Racism for The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. Outside of Penn he serves as the Chair of Global Action on Men’s Health, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Men’s Social and Community Health, and on boards of the American Institute for Boys and Men, Men’s Health Network, and the Movember Foundation.

Trained in psychology and public health, Dr. Griffith’s research focuses on achieving racial, ethnic, and gender equity in health, and anti-racism interventions to mitigate and undo the effects of structural racism on health. He specializes in community-based interventions to promote Black men’s health and well-being, and developing intersectional approaches to health policy that consider gender, men’s health, and health equity. 

Dr. Griffith is a contributor to and co-editor of numerous peer-reviewed articles and four books: Men’s Health Equity: A Handbook (Routledge, 2019), Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional (APHA Press, 2019), Health Promotion with Adolescent Boys and Young Men of Colour: Global Strategies for Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice in Context (Springer, 2023), and Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional, 2^nd Edition (APHA Press, 2024). He has been interviewed, quoted, and featured in ProPublica, New York Times, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, and other media outlets. The topics of these contributions have included racial and gender patterns of COVID-19, men’s health, and men’s life expectancy. 

Dr. Griffith has received several noteworthy honors including (a) the Tom Bruce Award from the Community-Based Public Health Caucus of the American Public Health Association for his research on “eliminating health disparities that vary by race, ethnicity and gender”; (b) a citation from the president of the American Psychological Association “For his extraordinary leadership in addressing the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation and specifically for African American and Latino men”, and (c) the “Lifetime Disruptor Award” from the Society for the Study of African American Public Health Issues for exhibiting “…a lifelong commitment to dismantling structural racism and other intersecting systems of oppression through science and policy…”