90: Addressing Health Inequities Using Multisectoral Partnerships with Dr. Vinu Ilakkuvan, DrPH, MSPH

Interview with Dr. Vinu Ilakkuvan, DrPH, MSPH

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Highlights from this episode:

1. Why start Health Equity Mondays
2. Health equity 101 & how health equity is achieved
3. Expectation of what you’ll get from the show
4. Police inflicted fatalities
5. Health equities vs health disparities

Episode 90 of Public Health Careers

Dr. Vinu Ilakkuvan, DrPH, MSPH is the Founder and Principal Consultant at PoP Health (Pursuit of Public Health) LLC. Vinu leads efforts to help communities and the organizations working with them address social determinants of health and health inequities by strengthening multi-sector efforts.

She got her Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering and Economics at University of Virginia. During her time here she interned at the Center for Science and Technology at American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as took part in the Virginia Governor’s Fellows program.

Vinu then went on to get her Master of Science in Public Health at Harvard University School of Public Health. She was a Project Manager at Teens Parents Health Connection at Center for Health. She was also a Research Assistant in Health Communication with Dr. Vish Viswanath and as a CDC/Harvard Evaluation Project. Vinu then interned as a Public Health Prevention Specialist at Virginia Department of Health in the Division of Injury and Violence Prevention which is the same organization she worked for full-time after graduating from her MSPH.

After graduating Vinu transitioned to a Bullying and Youth Violence Prevention Coordinator at the Virginia Department of Health. She then got her Doctorate of Public Health at the George Washington University, Milken Institute School of Public Health. During her DrPH she worked as a Research Associate and then a Senior Research Associate at the Truth Initiative in the Evaluation Science and Research.

She then worked as a Health Policy and Communication manager at Trust for America. Then went on to found and be the Principal at PoP Health (Pursuit of Public Health) LLC.

She is a TEDx speaker where her talk is titled “Square Peg, Round Hole: Fixing Our Approach To Health.“