Page 7 - Johns Hopkins School of Nursing - December 5, 2024 - Leona B. Carpenter Chair in Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health

in the nation as interim director of the Emergency Ambulance Bureau of the District of
Columbia Fire Department.

His academic career has consisted of a full range of endeavors from teaching and policy
research to academic program development and management. Benjamin has combined his
practice and academic experience as an emergency physician with public health to become
one of the nation’s experts in public health emergency preparedness.

At APHA, Benjamin also serves as publisher of the nonprofit’s monthly publication, The

Nation’s Health, the association’s official newspaper, and the American Journal of Public
Health, the profession’s premier scientific publication. He is the author of more than 200
scientific articles and book chapters. His recent book Public Health Under Siege: Improving
Policy in Turbulent Times explores the impact of policy on our nation’s health and offers
specific actions to improve health and extend life expectancy. He is also the author of The
Quest for Health Reform: A Satirical History, an exposé of the 100-year quest to ensure
quality, affordable health coverage for all using political cartoons.

Benjamin is an active member of the National Academy of Public Administration and the

National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) of the National
Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. He serves on the boards of many non-
profit organizations, including Research! America, the Truth Initiative, the Environmental
Defense Fund, and Ceres. Dr. Benjamin is also a former member of the National
Infrastructure Advisory Council, which advises the president on how best to assure the
security of the nation’s critical infrastructure.

In 2008, 2014, and 2016, he was named one of the top 25 minority executives in health care
by Modern Healthcare Magazine, in addition to being voted among the 100 most
influential people in health care for 14 years (2007-2018 and 2021-2023). In 2023,
Washingtonian Magazine voted Dr. Benjamin one of the 500 most influential people
shaping health policy.