Cassandra Adiba Okechukwu

Biography

Dr. Okechukwu leads the Social and Behavioral Sciences section of Harvard's FACETS summer program. Also, she mentors students’ practicum. She is a transformative leader in health equity and community health with over two decades of experience bridging research, public health, health care, and technology. She is renowned for her ability to unite diverse viewpoints and forge strategic partnerships across sectors, creating impactful, sustainable solutions for underserved populations.

As a faculty member from 2010 to 2018, Dr. Okechukwu conducted groundbreaking research on workplaces as social determinants of health. Her work explored how working conditions impact health and cancer prevention behaviors and included the design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions to improve health outcomes. These efforts informed policies and programs addressing systemic health disparities and improving occupational health worldwide.

As Vice President of Health Equity Research at UnitedHealth Group, Dr. Okechukwu led health equity initiatives, such as ensuring responsible use of machine learning and artificial intelligence in healthcare. At MITRE, she directed interdisciplinary teams to develop technology tools for equitable allocation of federal resources, including integrating geospatial health equity metrics into nationwide safety-net health service assessments and conducting research on emerging health disparities in behavioral health services.
(see: Putting Passion for Health Equity into Action; Bringing Mental Health Inequities Out of the Shadows).

Dr. Okechukwu’s exceptional ability to bridge viewpoints, build strategic partnerships, and lead collaborative initiatives continues to drive her mission of advancing health equity and addressing the root causes of health disparities. She began her career as a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital, providing direct care and mentoring students conducting home visits in underserved communities. These formative experiences, alongside her personal journey overcoming economic adversity, shapes her enduring commitment to advancing health equity through data-driven solutions, innovation, and compassionate engagement.

Education and Training

• AS, Pre-Nursing
  Montgomery College
• BSN, Nursing
  University of Maryland School of Nursing
• ScD, Planned Social Change and Social Epidemiology
  Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
• Postdoc, Interdisciplinary Sciences
  University of California San Francisco
• MSN, Community Health Nursing
  Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
• MPH, Occupational and Environmental Health
  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Publications

• Evaluating Methods for Mapping Historical Redlining to Census Tracts for Health Equity Research.

  De Los Santos H, Bezold CP, Jiang KM, Chen JT, Okechukwu CA. J Urban Health 2024

• Young Adult Sexual Behavior in South Africa: How Important is Parental Social Support?

  Agudile EP, Okechukwu CA, Subramanian SV, Langer A, Geller AC. Afr J Reprod Health 2020

• Integrating children's physical activity enjoyment into public health dialogue (United States).

  Barnett EY, Ridker PM, Okechukwu CA, Gortmaker SL. Health Promot Int 2019 Feb 01

• Organizational response to workplace violence, and its association with depressive symptoms: A nationwide survey of 1966 Korean EMS providers.

  Kim JH, Lee N, Kim JY, Kim SJ, Okechukwu C, Kim SS. J Occup Health 2019

• Associations Between Marijuana Use and Involuntary Job Loss in the United States: Representative Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Samples.

  Okechukwu CA, Molino J, Soh Y. J Occup Environ Med 2019 01