Chandra Ford

Ford completed her bachelor's degree in nutrition at Pennsylvania State University.[1] She moved to the University of Pittsburgh for her graduate studies, where she completed a master's degree in library and information science and a second course in public health at the University of Pittsburgh.[2] She has said that she became interested in health disparities because her family had a history in social justice and civil rights.[1] Ford earned her doctoral degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied health behaviour.[3] She was a W. K. Kellogg Foundation scholar at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research considered the reasons that HIV was so prevalent amongst African American communities.[1] During her fellowship she identified that African American people who were aware of racism were more proactive in seeking HIV testing and healthcare support than those who were unaware.[1] Similarly, African American people who were seen by Black clinicians were more likely to have an HIV test than those seen by non-Black clinicians. She devised a series of outreach programmes for high-risk populations, which looked to communicate the risks of HIV and importance of early diagnosis.[1]

Ford studies health equity and the social determinants of health. She has studied the influence of racism on healthcare and policy in the United States, recognising that it is a root cause of health inequity.[4][5] Her research combines public health research with critical race theory; so-called the public health critical race praxis.[6][7] In particular, her research emphasises that race is a social construct; and she is critical of scientists and physicians who reinforce the idea that race is a biological attribute and the cause of health outcomes.[8]

In 2016 Ford was appointed to the National Academy of Medicine Committee on Community-based Solutions to Promote Health Equity.[9] She serves on the American Public Health Association Anti-Racism Collaborative. She is the founding Director of the University of California, Los Angeles Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice and Health.[10] The center, founded in 2017, investigates the health implications of racism for diverse populations.[11] It provides explicit examples on how those working in public health can tackle racism, including naming racism explicitly, learning how to recognise bias, building community capacity, collecting data and prioritising equity.[12]

Ford and her colleague Gilbert C. Gee were awarded the 2019 Paul Cornely Award for their work on how health is affected by racism.[13]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ford investigated the reasons that Black people were overrepresented amongst coronavirus disease deaths.[14] She argued that communities of colour were more likely to live near the environmental hazards and pollutants, making them more likely to develop a severe form of coronavirus disease, and they were less likely to have access to affordable healthcare.[15][16] Ford called for more organising and activism to support communities of colour who have suffered from historical medical injustice.[17] In mid-May, Ford was critical of the decision for states to reopen from the COVID-19 lockdowns, saying that the reopening would disproportionately impact people of colour and immigrants.[18] She called for care to be taken to ensure that the communities who were suffering most from coronavirus disease did not become subject to more policing and arrest.[12]

• Gee, Gilbert C.; Ford, Chandra L. (2011). "Structural Racism and Health Inequities: Old Issues, New Directions". Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. 8 (1): 115–132. doi:10.1017/S1742058X11000130. ISSN 1742-058X. PMC 4306458. PMID 25632292.
• Ford, Chandra L.; Airhihenbuwa, Collins O. (2010-10-01). "The public health critical race methodology: Praxis for antiracism research". Social Science & Medicine. 71 (8): 1390–1398. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.07.030. ISSN 0277-9536. PMID 20822840.