Shelley Hearne, DrPH, is Forsythia Foundation’s Senior Advisor. She brings to the foundation a wealth of experience in building the environmental health and public health advocacy fields. Shelley is the Deans Sommer and Klag Distinguished Professor of the Practice and the Co-Director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Prior to joining the foundation, she was the president of CityHealth, executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, and the managing director of the Pew Health Group of the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she oversaw its food safety, medical safety, research, and biomedical programs.
She was also the founding executive director of Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), a national health advocacy organization dedicated to preventing epidemics.
Earlier in her career, Shelley worked as the executive director of the Pew Environmental Health Commission, the acting director of the Office of Pollution Prevention in the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. While at the Commission and TFAH, Shelley led the effort to create a nationwide environmental health tracking system.
Shelley was the chair of the American Public Health Association’s Executive Board and the vice president of the Council on Education for Public Health, the accreditation body for public health schools and has served on several National Academies of Science boards.
Shelley has authored many national health reports on topics ranging from bioterrorism to obesity. She has testified regularly before the US Congress on bioterrorism, pandemic preparedness, and environmental health tracking. She has conducted numerous public-health school accreditations around the world and has overseen the accreditation site visits of Harvard University and Yale University.
Shelley received her BA in chemistry and environmental studies with honors from Bowdoin College and her doctorate in environmental health sciences from Columbia University’s School of Public Health. She currently serves as a Bowdoin College Trustee.