Debra Furr-Holden | NYU School of Global Public Health

Debra Furr-Holden

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Professor of Epidemiology

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

Access to Care during a Global Health Crisis

Alcohol Advertising and Violence

Are Clinicians Contributing to Excess African American COVID-19 Deaths? Unbeknownst to Them, They May Be

Discrepancies in Local, State, and National Alcohol Outlet Listings: Implications for Research and Interventions

Expanding Tools for Investigating Neighborhood Indicators of Drug Use and Violence: Validation of the NIfETy for Virtual Street Observation

Measurement of Social Processes at the Neighborhood Level in Baltimore City

Neighborhood Profiles and Associations with Coping Behaviors among Low-Income Youth

The Impact of COVID-19 on African American Communities in the United States

The violence prevention potential of reducing alcohol outlet access in Baltimore, Maryland

Using Zoning as a Public Health Tool to Reduce Alcohol Outlet Oversaturation, Promote Compliance, and Guide Future Enforcement: a Preliminary Analysis of Transform Baltimore

Community-engaged development of a GIS-based healthfulness index to shape health equity solutions

Coping, Discrimination, and Physical Health Conditions Among Predominantly Poor, Urban African Americans: Implications for Community-Level Health Services

Does Tobacco Outlet Inequality Extend to High-White Mid-Atlantic Jurisdictions? A Study of Socioeconomic Status and Density

Individual and Neighborhood Factors Associated with Sexual Behavior Classes in an Urban Longitudinal Sample

Neighbourhood alcohol environment and injury risk: A spatial analysis of pedestrian injury in Baltimore City

Racial discrimination, John Henryism coping, and behavioral health conditions among predominantly poor, urban African Americans: Implications for community-level opioid problems and mental health services

Social influences on drinking trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood in an urban minority sample

The continuum of community engagement in research: A roadmap for understanding and assessing progress

The epidemiology of opioid overdose in Flint and Genesee County, Michigan: Implications for public health practice and intervention

The Impact of the Urban Neighborhood Environment on Marijuana Trajectories During Emerging Adulthood

The population randomization observation process (PROP) assessment method: Using systematic habitation observations of street segments to establish household-level epidemiologic population samples

Understanding the relationship between alcohol outlet density and life expectancy in Baltimore City: The role of community violence and community disadvantage

Using Zoning as a Public Health Tool to Reduce Oversaturation of Alcohol Outlets: an Examination of the Effects of the New “300 Foot Rule” on Packaged Goods Stores in a Mid-Atlantic City

When Marijuana Is Used before Cigarettes or Alcohol: Demographic Predictors and Associations with Heavy Use, Cannabis Use Disorder, and Other Drug-related Outcomes