Welcome Danya Keene, New Blog Editor

IAPHS welcomes Danya Keene as the new IAPHS Population Health Blog Editor. Danya is taking the reins from Sarah Burgard. Here are a few questions to help you get to know Danya, with a special thank you to Sarah for her incredible work.

Tell us about your background.

I am assistant professor of social behavioral sciences at Yale School of Public Health. My mixed-methods research broadly explores how social policies contribute to health inequality, with a particular focus on housing, neighborhoods and place.  My current work is focused on the growing and severe affordable housing crisis that US renters confront and its implications for population health and health inequality.

Throughout my career, I have benefited from interdisciplinary collaborations and from mentors and programs that support interdisciplinary work. I am immensely grateful for these opportunities to go outside the confines of discipline, bringing multiple perspectives, theories, and approaches to understanding and ameliorating health inequities.

What do you like best about IAPHS ?

I appreciate that IAPHS brings scholars, practitioners, and students together around a common set of goals, improving population health and advancing health equity. This is in contrast to other organizations that emphasize commonalities of discipline or methodology. It is a place where those of us who don’t quite fit neatly into disciplinary boxes can feel at home. I really look forward to the annual meeting as place to connect with colleagues across disciplines and to learn about the highly innovative,  high-quality, and impactful work that often emerges from interdisciplinary collaborations. I am always inspired and rejuvenated by these conferences and am very much looking forward to Seattle in October. For those of you who cannot attend, stay-tuned for some conference highlights on the blog.

I appreciate that IAPHS brings scholars, practitioners, and students together around a common set of goals, improving population health and advancing health equity. This is in contrast to other organizations that emphasize commonalities of discipline or methodology.

What drew you to becoming our new Blog Editor?

I am huge fan of IAPHS and am excited to help out the organization in any way that I can. As a contributor to the blog, former member of the editorial board, and blog reader, I also appreciate this resource a way to build community and start conversations among population health scholars. Sarah and JoAnne (and others before them) have done a fantastic job curating a diverse body of population health content. I will do my best to follow in their footsteps.

What topics are you most excited about covering?

I am looking forward to working with the editorial board to generate content on a broad range of topics relevant to population health.  I am also excited to hear from blog readers about content that they would like to produce or see featured, so please email me with ideas.

What do you do for fun?

I like to cross-country ski, hike, swim, read light escapist fiction, watch documentaries, and spend time with my husband and two kids.

On behalf of the IAPHS Board, membership, Communications Committee, Editorial Board, and Blog Manger JoAnne Dyer, a tremendously heartfelt thank you goes out to Sarah Burgard for her unfailingly positive, insightful work in keeping blog standards high and writers happy and encouraged—and always with humor and graciousness. Thank you, Sarah!