Rutgers School of Public Health’s Deanna Kerrigan is turning research into action that helps people and the communities around them thrive
As we celebrate Women’s History Month – themed this year “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future” – the Rutgers School of Public Health spotlights Vice Dean Deanna Kerrigan, founder and director of the Rutgers Center for Whole Person Health.
Her public health research advances disease prevention, treatment adherence and community resilience. Through this vital work, Kerrigan is helping build lasting health equity – a powerful example of women's leadership shaping sustainable futures.
Kerrigan, also the Henry Rutgers Chair of Whole Person Health and a professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy, shares her path into public health, key research insights and vision for equitable health systems.
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What first inspired you to pursue a career in public health, and how did that path lead you to your current role at the Rutgers School of Public Health?
I studied Political Science and Spanish at Emory University in Atlanta during college and became passionate about human rights, particularly in Latin America. I first interned at The Carter Presidential Center and thought I would go to law school. But then I learned about the work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and became fascinated by public health. I began to understand the importance of a prevention framework focused on averting human rights abuses, rather than solely addressing them after the fact.
That insight led me to obtain an MPH at Tulane University with a focus on health as a human right. There, I learned technical skills in program planning and evaluation and became a research assistant for a faculty member focused on reproductive health, helping to develop qualitative research tools for a study on family planning access in sub-Saharan Africa.
Upon graduation, I worked with a project led by female indigenous women in rural Guatemala. The women were community health workers, but in a holistic sense, promoting maternal and child health as well as literacy and microcredit for women and their families. That work inspired me to pursue my PhD at Johns Hopkins University focused on women’s health globally and domestically.
And it is that holistic approach, grounded in community, that motivated me to join the Rutgers School of Public Health as Vice Dean, given its emphasis on community engagement and humanity-centered public health, and founding the Rutgers Center on Whole Person Health.
Your research often explores how social-structural and psychosocial factors shape health outcomes for underserved groups. Can you share an example of a project from this work and some of the key findings that emerged?
A great deal of my work over the years has focused on marginalized women who are engaged in sex work and at high risk for or living with HIV. In my work with female sex workers, my research efforts have sought to understand and address both the internalized stigma associated with sex work and HIV and the discrimination women experience in terms of access to medical care or mistreatment from other state actors, partners and families, or community members.
I have been fortunate to have long-standing partnerships with other researchers, community groups, and non-governmental and governmental agencies in the Dominican Republic and Tanzania in these efforts. We have found that multi-level interventions that support safe spaces for women to come together and stimulate community mobilization, along with peer education, health provider sensitivity training and individual counseling, have an important impact in reducing stigma, promoting social cohesion and improving HIV and mental health outcomes.
Project Shikamana (Let’s Stick Together) in Tanzania was found to significantly reduce HIV incidence and was recognized by the CDC as an evidence-based structural HIV prevention. Similarly, Abriendo Puertas (Opening Doors) in the Dominican Republic helped improve HIV treatment outcomes among women living with HIV, including engagement in care and medication adherence, and has been recognized by both regional and global agencies as a best practice intervention. Both projects sought not only to address HIV but also related challenges, including mental health, substance use, gender-based violence, and financial security, reaffirming the importance of holistic approaches.
You've done significant community work with marginalized women both domestically and globally. What has your research revealed about disparities in women's health?
Women often face multiple interconnected barriers to health, and in the case of marginalized women, this may include gender, racial/ethnic, class, and/or occupational discrimination. These interconnected forms of stigma and discrimination impact women’s access to healthcare and their mental health, whereby structural exclusion and social mistreatment get under the skin and create a psychological burden.
For women, this stress can be intensified by virtue of the fact that we often hold multiple roles and responsibilities as caretakers of children, partners and elders. Supporting women to balance their own health and well-being along with that of their families is critical.
As director of the Rutgers Center for Whole Person Health, can you share more about the center and the impact you hope it will have on public health in New Jersey and beyond?
The Center for Whole Person Health focuses not on one specific disease or health condition but rather the whole—the whole person in context of families and communities. The center conducts rigorous research to explore the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit in partnership with community-based groups, both locally and globally, and translates findings into tangible interventions and services that support better health outcomes.
We hope to engage students so that they can get involved in projects that examine how various psychosocial and structural factors impact multiple health outcomes, and how resilience can be cultivated at both the individual and community levels to improve health and well-being through interventions focused on promoting mindfulness and social belonging.
Women’s History Month invites us to reflect on the women who have shaped our lives and work. What does it mean to you personally, and which women have most influenced your journey?
Women have always had both the burden and gift of being the cornerstones of their families and communities. During Women’s History Month, we celebrate the historic and ongoing struggles and achievements of women across settings and raise visibility on the ways in which gender related discrimination actively operates and intersects with other forms of inequality in our world.
I have been inspired by so many women—within public health but also within literature, the arts, spirituality, and within my own family. In particular, I think of my grandmother, who immigrated to the United States at the age of 18 from Ireland. Many places had signs saying No Irish and No Catholics need apply in Boston in the early 1900s. She started doing laundry for work, and my grandfather worked in factories, and together they were able to provide an education to their children that they never had growing up in rural Ireland. My grandmother passed down her strong work ethic and inspired me with her personal dignity and commitment to equal treatment.
What advice would you give to students and early-career researchers who are interested in health equity and public health?
One of the most important pieces of advice I can share based on my own experience relates to the significance of mentorship. Finding a mentor during your public health training is critically important, as well-matched mentors can help students distill what they are most passionate about and clarify what practical skills will best prepare them for their next academic and career steps.
At the Rutgers School of Public Health, there are so many wonderful faculty and staff who can support that process for students. Gaining hands-on experience with a mentor to guide you while you are still in school will prepare you to make the contributions to health equity and public health that we urgently need in this moment.
