Yonette Thomas, PhD, Introduction to the Podcast

Conversations on Urban Health - Dr Yonette Thomas

In this first episode, Dr. Thomas talks about the purpose of these Conversations on Urban Health and how they are intended to serve as a stimulus for engaging members, highlighting the work of “Urban Health Influencers,” and generating new ideas for future activities. Yonette is a founding board member of the ISUH (International Society for Urban Health) and recalls the early days of working with David Vlahov, the founder father of ISUH, to secure funding for the conferences. She has come back to ISUH to serve as its first executive director to lead the organization forward at this critical point in its evolution. Her vision for the organization is increased membership, an active virtual collaboratory that facilitates an arc of active engagement prior to the conference, leading to member-driven panels and workshops at the conference, and post-conference papers, initiatives, and other activities. She also envisions the creation of a data bridge for visualizing community-level data on urban health.