Meagan Brown, PhD, MPH

Tess Matson

“We all live intersectional lives, and our research should reflect the complexity and richness of those experiences.”

Meagan Brown, PhD, MPH

Director, SONNET
Assistant Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health

Biography

Meagan C. Brown, PhD, MPH, is a health equity and implementation science researcher who joined Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) as a collaborative scientist in 2021. She is also the director of SONNET: Social Needs Network for Evaluation and Translation, which is funded by Kaiser Permanente's National Office of Community Health and aims to address the social risks and needs of Kaiser Permanente members.

Dr. Brown’s work is rooted in intersectionality theory, which emphasizes the interdependence of social positions (for example, race, class/income, and disability) situated within larger macrosystems of power, privilege, and oppression. She has extensive experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions for chronic disease prevention across community-based and academic settings.

Since joining KPWHRI, Dr. Brown has applied her expertise in health equity theories and methods, social determinants of health (SDOH), implementation science, and chronic disease prevention to the rapidly growing field of social health research. She has led several notable social health projects. These include:

  • Leading a social health strategic planning study using concept mapping methods. This study, which engaged 500-plus partners, resulted in a set of 92 social health priorities for learning and action for use by Kaiser Permanente and the growing social health research field.
  • Developing an SDOH database that can help advance understanding of social and structural factors that impact health outcomes, as site principal investigator of a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded health equity supplement.
  • Serving as co-principal investigator of the 2022 Kaiser Permanente National Social Health Survey. In addition to being a data asset widely used by both researchers and leadership across Kaiser Permanente to inform their strategic directions, this survey is one of the first and largest longitudinal assessments of social health in the larger field of social health research.

In addition to these projects, Dr. Brown currently serves as the health equity expert on the Optimizing Implementation in Cancer Control (OPTICC) Center, which is an implementation science center funded by the NCI. She is also leading a pilot study comparing the impact of local community resource specialists on addressing the social needs of Kaiser Permanente members, with the impact of a centralized call center. In 2022, Dr. Brown also received a National Institutes of Health/NCI Disparities Loan Repayment Award to examine the impact of these 2 different approaches to addressing members’ social needs in relation to preventative breast, colon, and cervical cancer screenings.

Dr. Brown obtained her MPH in health behavior from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her PhD in health services from the University of Washington (UW). At UW, she received a Graduate Opportunities-Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP) scholarship as well as T32 fellowships from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, all of which supported chronic disease prevention intervention implementation, effectiveness, and equity research. In 2019, Dr. Brown was named one of the Husky 100 — an award given to only 100 UW students across all 3 campuses — for her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in her research and the broader community.

Dr. Brown is an affiliate assistant professor at UW and is committed to training and mentoring the next generation of public health professionals, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds. In addition to being a co-instructor for the Foundations of Public Health course in the UW MPH Core Program, she also has extensive experience working with rural and under-resourced local health department practitioners to improve their use of evidence-based and community-engaged implementation strategies.

In her spare time, Dr. Brown plays semi-professional ultimate frisbee and, like many PNWers, enjoys hiking and backpacking with her dog, Callie.

Recent Publications

Brown MC, Hawley C, Ornelas IJ, Huber C, Best L, Thorndike AN, Beresford S, Howard BV, Umans JG, Hager A, Fretts AM Adapting a cooking, food budgeting and nutrition intervention for a rural community of American Indians with type 2 diabetes in the North-Central United States 2023 Jan 20;38(1):13-27. doi: 10.1093/her/cyac033. Epub 2022-11-07. PubMed

Kava CM, Strait M, Brown MC, Hammerback K, Harris JR, Alongi J, Hannon PA. Partnerships to expand worksite wellness programs - A qualitative analysis of state and local health department perspectives. Inquiry. 2022 Jan-Dec;59:469580221092822. doi: 10.1177/00469580221092822. PubMed

Graham SE, Clarke SL, Wu KH, Kanoni S, Zajac GJM, Ramdas S, Surakka I, Ntalla I, Vedantam S, Winkler TW, Locke AE, Marouli E, Hwang MY, Han S, Narita A, Choudhury A, Bentley AR, Ekoru K, Verma A, Trivedi B, Martin HC, Hunt KA, Hui Q, Klarin D, Zhu X, Thorleifsson G, Helgadottir A, Gudbjartsson DF, Holm H, Olafsson I, Akiyama M, Sakaue S, Terao C, Kanai M, Zhou W, Brumpton BM, Rasheed H, Ruotsalainen SE, Havulinna AS, Veturi Y, Feng Q, Rosenthal EA, Lingren T, Pacheco JA, Pendergrass SA, Haessler J, Giulianini F, Bradford Y, Miller JE, Campbell A, Lin K, Millwood IY, Hindy G, Rasheed A, Faul JD, Zhao W, Weir DR, Turman C, Huang H, Graff M, Mahajan A, Brown MR, Zhang W, Yu K, Schmidt EM, Pandit A, Gustafsson S, Yin X, Luan J, Zhao JH, Matsuda F, Jang HM, Yoon K, Medina-Gomez C, Pitsillides A, Hottenga JJ, Willemsen G, Wood AR, Ji Y, Gao Z, Haworth S, Mitchell RE, Chai JF, Aadahl M, Yao J, Manichaikul A, Warren HR, Ramirez J, Bork-Jensen J, Kårhus LL, Goel A, Sabater-Lleal M, Noordam R, Sidore C, Fiorillo E, McDaid AF, Marques-Vidal P, Wielscher M, Trompet S, Sattar N, Møllehave LT, Thuesen BH, Munz M, Zeng L, Huang J, Yang B, Poveda A, Kurbasic A, Lamina C, Forer L, Scholz M, Galesloot TE, Bradfield JP, Daw EW, Zmuda JM, Mitchell JS, Fuchsberger C, Christensen H, Brody JA, Feitosa MF, Wojczynski MK, Preuss M, Mangino M, Christofidou P, Verweij N, Benjamins JW, Engmann J, Kember RL, Slieker RC, Lo KS, Zilhao NR, Le P, Kleber ME, Delgado GE, Huo S, Ikeda DD, Iha H, Yang J, Liu J, Leonard HL, Marten J, Schmidt B, Arendt M, Smyth LJ, Cañadas-Garre M, Wang C, Nakatochi M, Wong A, Hutri-Kähönen N, Sim X, Xia R, Huerta-Chagoya A, Fernandez-Lopez JC, Lyssenko V, Ahmed M, Jackson AU, Irvin MR, Oldmeadow C, Kim HN, Ryu S, Timmers PRHJ, Arbeeva L, Dorajoo R, Lange LA, Chai X, Prasad G, Lorés-Motta L, Pauper M, Long J, Li X, Theusch E, Takeuchi F, Spracklen CN, Loukola A, Bollepalli S, Warner SC, Wang YX, Wei WB, Nutile T, Ruggiero D, Sung YJ, Hung YJ, Chen S, Liu F, Yang J, Kentistou KA, Gorski M, Brumat M, Meidtner K, Bielak LF, Smith JA, Hebbar P, Farmaki AE, Hofer E, Lin M, Xue C, Zhang J, Concas MP, Vaccargiu S, van der Most PJ, Pitkänen N, Cade BE, Lee J, van der Laan SW, Chitrala KN, Weiss S, Zimmermann ME, Lee JY, Choi HS, Nethander M, Freitag-Wolf S, Southam L, Rayner NW, Wang CA, Lin SY, Wang JS, Couture C, Lyytikäinen LP, Nikus K, Cuellar-Partida G, Vestergaard H, Hildalgo B, Giannakopoulou O, Cai Q, Obura MO, van Setten J, Li X, Schwander K, Terzikhan N, Shin JH, Jackson RD, Reiner AP, Martin LW, Chen Z, Li L, Highland HM, Young KL, Kawaguchi T, Thiery J, Bis JC, Nadkarni GN, Launer LJ, Li H, Nalls MA, Raitakari OT, Ichihara S, Wild SH, Nelson CP, Campbell H, Jäger S, Nabika T, Al-Mulla F, Niinikoski H, Braund PS, Kolcic I, Kovacs P, Giardoglou T, Katsuya T, Bhatti KF, de Kleijn D, de Borst GJ, Kim EK, Adams HHH, Ikram MA, Zhu X, Asselbergs FW, Kraaijeveld AO, Beulens JWJ, Shu XO, Rallidis LS, Pedersen O, Hansen T, Mitchell P, Hewitt AW, Kähönen M, Pérusse L, Bouchard C, Tönjes A, Chen YI, Pennell CE, Mori TA, Lieb W, Franke A, Ohlsson C, Mellström D, Cho YS, Lee H, Yuan JM, Koh WP, Rhee SY, Woo JT, Heid IM, Stark KJ, Völzke H, Homuth G, Evans MK, Zonderman AB, Polasek O, Pasterkamp G, Hoefer IE, Redline S, Pahkala K, Oldehinkel AJ, Snieder H, Biino G, Schmidt R, Schmidt H, Chen YE, Bandinelli S, Dedoussis G, Thanaraj TA, Kardia SLR, Kato N, Schulze MB, Girotto G, Jung B, Böger CA, Joshi PK, Bennett DA, De Jager PL, Lu X, Mamakou V, Brown M, Caulfield MJ, Munroe PB, Guo X, Ciullo M, Jonas JB, Samani NJ, Kaprio J, Pajukanta P, Adair LS, Bechayda SA, de Silva HJ, Wickremasinghe AR, Krauss RM, Wu JY, Zheng W, den Hollander AI, Bharadwaj D, Correa A, Wilson JG, Lind L, Heng CK, Nelson AE, Golightly YM, Wilson JF, Penninx B, Kim HL, Attia J, Scott RJ, Rao DC, Arnett DK, Walker M, Koistinen HA, Chandak GR, Yajnik CS, Mercader JM, Tusié-Luna T, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Villalpando CG, Orozco L, Fornage M, Tai ES, van Dam RM, Lehtimäki T, Chaturvedi N, Yokota M, Liu J, Reilly DF, McKnight AJ, Kee F, Jöckel KH, McCarthy MI, Palmer CNA, Vitart V, Hayward C, Simonsick E, van Duijn CM, Lu F, Qu J, Hishigaki H, Lin X, März W, Parra EJ, Cruz M, Gudnason V, Tardif JC, Lettre G, 't Hart LM, Elders PJM, Damrauer SM, Kumari M, Kivimaki M, van der Harst P, Spector TD, Loos RJF, Province MA, Psaty BM, Brandslund I, Pramstaller PP, Christensen K, Ripatti S, Widén E, Hakonarson H, Grant SFA, Kiemeney LALM, de Graaf J, Loeffler M, Kronenberg F, Gu D, Erdmann J, Schunkert H, Franks PW, Linneberg A, Jukema JW, Khera AV, Männikkö M, Jarvelin MR, Kutalik Z, Cucca F, Mook-Kanamori DO, van Dijk KW, Watkins H, Strachan DP, Grarup N, Sever P, Poulter N, Rotter JI, Dantoft TM, Karpe F, Neville MJ, Timpson NJ, Cheng CY, Wong TY, Khor CC, Sabanayagam C, Peters A, Gieger C, Hattersley AT, Pedersen NL, Magnusson PKE, Boomsma DI, de Geus EJC, Cupples LA, van Meurs JBJ, Ghanbari M, Gordon-Larsen P, Huang W, Kim YJ, Tabara Y, Wareham NJ, Langenberg C, Zeggini E, Kuusisto J, Laakso M, Ingelsson E, Abecasis G, Chambers JC, Kooner JS, de Vries PS, Morrison AC, North KE, Daviglus M, Kraft P, Martin NG, Whitfield JB, Abbas S, Saleheen D, Walters RG, Holmes MV, Black C, Smith BH, Justice AE, Baras A, Buring JE, Ridker PM, Chasman DI, Kooperberg C, Wei WQ, Jarvik GP, Namjou B, Hayes MG, Ritchie MD, Jousilahti P, Salomaa V, Hveem K, Åsvold BO, Kubo M, Kamatani Y, Okada Y, Murakami Y, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stefansson K, Ho YL, Lynch JA, Rader DJ, Tsao PS, Chang KM, Cho K, O'Donnell CJ, Gaziano JM, Wilson P, Rotimi CN, Hazelhurst S, Ramsay M, Trembath RC, van Heel DA, Tamiya G, Yamamoto M, Kim BJ, Mohlke KL, Frayling TM, Hirschhorn JN, Kathiresan S, VA Million Veteran Program, Global Lipids Genetics Consortium*, Boehnke M, Natarajan P, Peloso GM, Brown CD, Morris AP, Assimes TL, Deloukas P, Sun YV, Willer CJ The power of genetic diversity in genome-wide association studies of lipids 2021 Dec;600(7890):675-679. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04064-3. Epub 2021-12-09. PubMed

Brown MC, Kava C, Bekemeier B, Ornelas IJ, Harris JR, Chan KCG, Robertson M, Hannon PA. Local health departments' capacity for workplace health promotion programs to prevent chronic disease: Comparison of rural, micropolitan, and urban contexts. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2021 Sep-Oct;27(5):E183-E188. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001182. PubMed

Brown MC, Marciniak CM, Garrett AM, Gaebler-Spira DJ. Diet quality in adults with cerebral palsy: a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease prevention. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2021 Oct;63(10):1221-1228. doi: 10.1111/dmcn.14913. Epub 2021 May 6. PubMed

 

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