shanta whitaker

Throughout her career, Dr. Shanta Whitaker has wanted her passion to match her purpose. Her quest has always been driven to help and serve the most vulnerable people. She started off her journey at Virginia Union University on a quest to be a medical doctor, but upon graduation, she found herself embarked on a path to pursue a PhD in Microbiology at Yale University. However, basic science research still didn't satisfy her. By volunteering with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and the Junior League, she realized that hiding in a laboratory wasn't going to directly impact her community. She wanted more. Pursuing a Masters of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health opened the door to having the ability to match her purpose with her passion. While at Hopkins, she completed a national study looking at the role of educational attainment in adverse diabetes outcomes in minority men. She realized that applied public health research and policy was the way to make concrete changes to improve health in vulnerable communities. Currently, Dr. Whitaker is a health policy consultant working on Accountable Care Organizations. Previously, she was the Senior Disparities Analyst for a nonprofit organization to reduce disparities within Medicare. It is her hope to see lower rates of chronic disease among African Americans and other minority populations. She believes it first takes a thorough understanding of the social determinants of health and how they influence health outcomes.