Joseph Amon, Epidemiologist and Human Rights Activist, Named Director of Bloomberg School’s Center for Public Health and Human Rights

Joseph Amon, PhD, MSPH, has joined the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights. He assumed the role on October 15. 

Amon, whose work focuses on neglected diseases and populations, comes from Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health, where he served in several positions, including director of the Office of Global Health, director of the Jonathan Mann Global Health and Human Rights Initiative, and clinical teaching professor in the Department of Community Health and Prevention. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Health and Human Rights Journal, which is co-published by Drexel in collaboration with the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. 

Since 2004, the Center for Public Health and Human Rights has worked to bring the tools of public health research to empower the world’s most disadvantaged people. Based in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology, the Center has assembled an interdisciplinary faculty and global partners to advance policy by government and global institutions to protect health and human rights. 

As director, Amon plans to continue the Center’s work of teaching and conducting research related to stigmatized and historically disenfranchised populations. 

“We live in a time of vast inequalities where people struggle to survive, let alone thrive, amidst conflict, autocracy, financial collapse, infrastructural breakdown, and environmental tipping points,” says Amon.  “The work of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights, combining the tools of population-based sciences and human rights law, could not be more important in this context. I am honored to join the Center at this crucial moment, when we are still feeling the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and there is a need to rebuild trust and confidence in the field of public health.”   

Trained in molecular parasitology, Amon has worked for a wide range of governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the CDC, FHI360, Helen Keller International, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. During a 10-year tenure at Human Rights Watch, he founded programs on human rights and health, disability, and the environment.  

Using quantitative, qualitative, and legal/policy analysis, Amon has conducted research on how and why specific populations and diseases are neglected, as well as on the impact of political determinants, such as laws and their enforcement, on health. His work has examined the impact of discrimination on access to preventive care and treatment; censorship; arbitrary detention; the “judicialization” of health; and the role of civil society in the response to infectious disease outbreaks and environmental health threats. 

“Joe is an ambitious leader who is ready to guide the Center in its urgent work conducting research and advocacy to elucidate the impact of human rights abrogations on the health of populations and develop rights-based approaches to public health challenges,” says Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD, ScM, dean of the Bloomberg School. “His deep and wide-ranging experience will help the Center to break new ground in their efforts to drive social change through rigorous science and a deep commitment to those most in need.” 

Amon has served on advisory boards for UNAIDS, The Global Fund, and the WHO, as well as on the editorial board and ethics committee of the Journal of the International AIDS Society. He is also a member of the International AIDS Society–Lancet Commission on Health and Human Rights and is a founding member of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition. 

“Joe is a global leader in human rights whose work has been dedicated to demonstrating the connections between health and human rights while advocating for positive change,” says Shruti Mehta, PhD, Dr. Charles Armstrong Chair of the Department of Epidemiology. “He will undoubtedly lead the Center to innovate and build new collaborations critical for ensuring a more just and equitable health system for all.” 

Amon received his bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Hampshire College and holds an MSPH from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a PhD in Parasitology from Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences’ F. Edward Herbert School of Medicine. 

He succeeds Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, who stepped down in 2022 to become director of the Duke Global Health Institute. Leonard Rubenstein, JD, a Distinguished Professor of the Practice in the Department of Epidemiology, served as interim director before Amon assumed his new role. 

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