Joanna Michel, PhD
Director
Urban Medicine Program
Contact
Building & Room:
990 CMET
Address:
808 S. Wood St.
Office Phone:
Email:
About
Dr. Michel received her PhD in ethnopharmacology in 2006 from the UIC College of Pharmacy and in 2008 completed a CDC Postdoctoral fellowship in Community Health Sciences in the UIC School of Public Health. She has also received training in ecological horticulture, western herbalism, and permaculture. Joanna is passionate about bringing access and equity to minority, underserved communities with a particular interest in food inequities, health career pipeline disparities, and the preservation of cultural practices around nutrition and plant-based medicine. Her international research (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia) includes 2 Fulbright Fellowships to study the impact of displacement and migration on traditional medical practices.
She is currently the Director of the Urban Medicine Program (UMed) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The mission of UMed is to prepare physician-leaders to serve urban, underserved communities. In addition to a 4-year curriculum in community-based research, health disparities, and policy and advocacy students partner with community-based organizations around Chicago's South and West sides to address social determinants of health through community engagement and health education. She is also a Professor in Medical Education, Affiliate Professor in Community Health Sciences at the UIC School of Public Health and Deputy Director of the Illinois Area Health Education Center (AHEC). She is a Research Associate in Integrative Sciences at the Field Museum of Natural History where her and Anthropologists Dr. Molly Doane and Dr. Alaka Wali have an exhibit about Chicago's urban farms and herb stores entitled Plant Medicine, now showing through December 2021.
Courses taught for the BA Public Health degree:
- PUB 100 - Health and the Public