Debra Furr-Holden

Debra Furr-Holden

Debra Furr-Holden

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Professor of Epidemiology

Professional overview

Debra M. Furr-Holden is an epidemiologist and passionate advocate for health equity. A public health professional with broad expertise in health disparities and policy-level interventions toward health equity, her scholarship encompasses a range of topics including drug and alcohol dependence epidemiology, psychiatric epidemiology, and prevention science.

Dean Furr-Holden hails from Michigan State University, where she was the C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health and associate dean for public health integration. In announcing her appointment, effective July 2022, NYU President Andrew Hamilton noted Dr. Furr-Holden’s extensive experience working with local and national policymakers, her skill at team-building and success as a mentor, and her exceptional talent as a communicator on public health and health equity issues.

Indeed, it is Dean Furr-Holden’s action-oriented research and commitment to training the next generation of public health practitioners that dovetails perfectly with GPH’s mission to use data-driven interventions and cutting-edge innovation to identify and implement equitable solutions to both domestic and international public health challenges.

In addition to her endowed professorship at MSU, Dr. Furr-Holden served as director of the NIH-funded Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions at the College of Human Medicine. During the Covid-19 pandemic she was appointed to the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, the Greater Flint Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Inequity, and the New York City African American Covid-19 Task Force. Most notably, in Michigan and Flint the racial disparity in Covid-19 cases and deaths among African Americans was eliminated.

Prior to her appointments at MSU Dr. Furr-Holden was an assistant (2007) and later associate (2011) professor at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she retains an appointment as an adjunct professor. Before Johns Hopkins, she was a research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation and a faculty member at Morgan State University.

Dean Furr-Holden is a widely published scholar whose writings include more than 120 peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals. In 2021 she published a seminal article in Addiction that highlighted racial disparities in opioid overdose deaths over the past two decades, and she was recently quoted in an exclusive article in The New York Times examining the demography of deaths nationwide from Covid-19.

Dean Furr-Holden is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the White House Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Junior Faculty Mentoring Award; and the Meeting the Moment for Public Health Award, recognizing the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, of which she is a founding member.

Education

BA, Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, Baltimore, MA
PhD, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MA

Publications

Publications

Age-specific trends in pregnancy-associated suicide and homicide rates by race/ethnicity, 2005–2021

Dissemination through trusted credible messengers: 133 weeks of the Flint Community Webinar on COVID-19

A scoping review of health inequities in alcohol use disorder

An Immediate but Fleeting Interest in MPH Programs After the Onset of COVID-19: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis

Bather, J. R., Burke, E. M., Plepys, C. M., Rajbhandari-Thapa, J., Furr-Holden, D., & Goodman, M. S. (n.d.).

Publication year

2024

Journal title

Public Health Reports
Abstract
Abstract
Objectives: The relationship between the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and interest in master of public health (MPH) programs is unknown. We examined trends in MPH application rates for 31 MPH concentrations and specifically for the MPH concentration in epidemiology and differences by race and ethnicity before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We constructed a quasi-experimental design to examine trends in MPH application rates from academic years 2015-2016 through 2022-2023 by using Centralized Application Service for Schools and Programs of Public Health data. We used an interrupted time-series analysis to test whether application rates surged after the pandemic’s onset (academic years 2019-2020 through 2020-2021) and whether this increase persisted during the pandemic (academic years 2020-2021 through 2022-2023). We fit models for the overall sample, a combined racially and ethnically minoritized sample, each racial and ethnic group separately, and a non–US citizen sample. Results: The pandemic’s onset correlated with an immediate increase in application rates across most samples: overall (38%) and among American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (91%), Asian (35%), Black (42%), Hispanic (60%), multiracial (30%), racially and ethnically minoritized (44%), and White (53%) samples. However, this trend was not sustained; application rate trends during the pandemic were significantly lower than prepandemic trends. Application rate trends for all MPH concentrations and the MPH in epidemiology concentration among non–US citizens were significantly higher during the pandemic than prepandemic. Conclusions: Our results highlight the need for innovative strategies to sustain MPH degree interest and a diverse applicant pool.

Racial and Ethnic Composition of Departments of Health Policy & Management and Health Education & Behavioral Sciences

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Perioperative Health Care Among Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery: JACC State-of-the-Art Review

Development of a systematic social observation tool for monitoring use of harm reduction supplies

Establishing the Relative Accuracy of Using City Directories as Proxies to Define and Reconstruct Historical Alcohol Environments

In Reply to Yung and Morris

Linking Historical Discriminatory Housing Patterns to the Contemporary Alcohol Environment

Organizational Leaders Perceptions of Barriers to Accessing Behavioral Health Services in a Low-Resource Community

Peer Recovery Coaches Perceptions of Their Work and Their Implications for Training, Support and Personal Recovery

An Evaluation Framework of a Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center for Health Equity Research

Experiences of Discrimination, Institutional Responses to Seminal Race Events, and Depressive Symptoms in Black U.S. Medical Students

Mission, Organization, and Future Direction of the Serological Sciences Network for COVID-19 (SeroNet) Epidemiologic Cohort Studies

Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Among Black Medical Students: the Role of Peer Connectedness and Perceived Discrimination

Trajectory Modeling of Spatio-Temporal Trends in COVID-19 Incidence in Flint and Genesee County, Michigan

Using trajectory modeling of spatio-temporal trends to illustrate disparities in COVID-19 death in flint and Genesee County, Michigan

Adolescent Development in Context: A Decade Review of Neighborhood and Activity Space Research

Alcohol outlets, drug paraphernalia sales, and neighborhood drug overdose

An NIH investment in health equity - the economic impact of the Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions

Black, white, or green? The effects of racial composition and socioeconomic status on neighborhood-level tobacco outlet density

Evaluation of a local ordinance to prevent any underage purchases in liquor stores: The need for enforcement

Health Data Disparities in Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths From 1999 to 2018 in the United States

Linking historical discriminatory housing patterns to the contemporary food environment in Baltimore

Contact

cdh8201@nyu.edu 708 Broadway New York, NY, 10003