Posted 10/8/2008

Council encourages efforts to eliminate
disparities, promote health.

USC research associate Dr. Crystal Piper has been elected to the American Public Health Association’s Governing Council for the Community Health Planning & Policy Development Section.

Crystal Piper

Piper is a Columbia native who works for the Arnold School’s Institute for Partnerships to Eliminate Health Disparities and the Rural Health Research Center. Additionally she is an adjunct faculty member at Benedict College.

Founded in 1969, the CHPPD Section serves a wide array of health professionals in providing a means to share information and debate critical issues related to planning, and to learn how policy is shaped at the local, state and national levels.

The section’s mission is to encourage planning and policy development to eliminate disparities and promote healthy communities.

Growing up in South Carolina, Piper observed racial disparities first hand. “I often witnessed the continuous struggle of African Americans in the areas of poverty, education, housing, social justice and health care,” she said.

“I made a steadfast commitment to seek a career that would benefit my family and my community. I knew a career in public health would fulfill my quest to helping this country resolve health care issues, improve the quality of care, and make a difference,” she said.

Piper earned a bachelor’s degree from South Carolina State University in 2001. In 2002, she earned a master’s degree in public health and, in 2003, a master’s degree in health administration, both from the Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center.

She earned her doctorate in Health Services Policy & Management from the USC Arnold School of Public Health in 2007. Her dissertation was titled Examination of Racial Disparities in Childhood Asthma Management Practices in the United States.

To further her goal of becoming a nationally recognized independent investigator of health disparities and vulnerable populations, she is concentrating on studying health disparities and chronic disease among women, children, and rural populations.

She currently has six publications in the American Journal of Public Health, Ethnicity & Disease, the Journal of Health Disparities Research & Practice, and the Journal of Health & Social Policy.