Jon-Patrick Allem, PhD, MA (he/him/his)
Biography
Jon-Patrick Allem, Ph.D., M.A., is an associate professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health. He is also an associate professor of general internal medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and a core member of the Institute for Nicotine & Tobacco Studies (INTS).
Dr. Allem obtained a B.A. in political science with a minor in history and a M.A. in political science from San Diego State University and completed a Ph.D. in health behavior research from the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine. His postdoctoral training was completed in tobacco regulatory science at the USC Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science. In 2019, he founded the Social Media Analytics (SOMA) Lab in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine.
Research Interests
Dr. Allem’s research shows the different ways that corporations influence adolescent health, with current projects focusing on identifying sources of exposure to tobacco marketing among adolescents and young adults. Beyond the impact of his science on scientific discourse, he is committed to using his science to impact public health. In this case it involves advocating for policies that protect children and adolescents from harmful media exposures and exacting punishments for companies that harm children through their unfair marketing practices. Because companies fight such policies, this type of advocacy necessarily involves the judiciary system, working with attorneys at the state and local level to develop, pass and enforce restrictions, and enact punishments. By working in this way, Dr. Allem aims to apply his research in ways to protect the health of large numbers of children.