Maisha Standifer, PhD, MPH, Director, Health Policy

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We are excited to welcome Dr. Maisha N. Standifer to the SHLI team!

Dr. Standifer has over 15 years of applied health program administration, evaluation and research expertise, including health policy development and analysis, mixed methods research and examining health disparities and inequalities domestically and globally.

Dr. Standifer joins us from the James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital in Tampa, Florida. For over 5 years she worked at the VA as a Research Specialist, Program Administrator and Study Investigator for Research and Development Services. Dr. Standifer’s current research advances the science of health information technology and patient-centered care to improve vulnerable veteran populations.

Her training as a Medical Anthropologist and public health practitioner has allowed her to apply unique insight within disparate and medically underserved populations. Her research focuses on the intersections between culture, health, and vulnerable communities. Her expertise is in qualitative and quantitative methods, research and evaluation, community engagement, women’s healthcare, along with implementation and health services research. Dr. Standifer is also an Assistant Professor, and a Co-Investigator on multiple federally funded studies. Her research portfolio furthers production of community-based participatory research to create culturally-tailored interventions that empower disenfranchised populations to make healthy informed decision-making life choices.

Dr. Standifer continues to administer, develop and conduct studies and evidence-based prevention initiatives that effectively implement targeted strategies to reduce social determinants within vulnerable populations throughout the Diaspora. Dr. Standifer received her Bachelor’s degree at Spelman College, her Master’s degree in Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and a doctorate in Applied Anthropology with a concentration in Medical Anthropology from the University of South Florida.