Below are highlights from our interview with Jackie Jahn.
Read the full conversation.

This month, we spoke to Jackie Jahn, social epidemiologist and Assistant Professor at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health and the Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements, and Population Health Equity about her research, activism, and inspiration.

Will you tell us a little bit about yourself? Your current role, focus and a little bit about what you do?

I'm Jackie Jahn, an assistant professor in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health where I am also a part of the Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements, and Population Health Equity. I'm a social epidemiologist and my work focuses on the people who come into contact with the criminal legal system in the US–as well as their families and communities–and the ways that structural racism through the criminal legal system shapes population health and health inequities.

Do you mind just sharing a little bit about your background and journey? What sparked your interest in what you do now?

My very first public health internship was when I was an undergrad, at a syringe exchange in New York City, and it was an incredibly fun and formative experience for me. I didn't really know what public health was (it’s so many things!), and entering through that very humble and justice-oriented world of harm reduction was very lucky. 

My work on incarcerated populations really started not so much from my academic work, but from activism I did outside of school. When I was in grad school, I was part of a coalition called Deeper Than Water, led by currently incarcerated people in Massachusetts that formed around concerns over the water quality and safety in Massachusetts state prisons. The work expanded to focus on heat waves and other environmental justice issues as well as medical care and inadequate medical care for people who are currently incarcerated. 

Your activism played a huge role in setting you on this path. Can you talk a little bit more about how you bring the two together?

There's a lot of really important science for science's sake, and that just has never been what called me to this. When I am at the early stages of a research project, I always think, “Why do this work?”–what is really the goal, and what would this work mean for changing policy, practice, etc. That has really driven the work that I do, because I came to public health because of the field's potential to change population distributions of disease.

There's a research question, and then there are the political implications of the question: What would it mean politically if we found a certain answer to our research question; what would it mean politically if we found the opposite? It's really thinking through critically what would it mean for policy, what would it mean for changing our world if we found this was true, or if we found that actually there's no relationship when we expected to see one. I think that kind of approach makes for a really rigorous, impactful science.

Do you have any advice for students, people early in their public health career, or maybe people who want to plug into activism and don't know how?

I think for people that are interested in doing health equity and social justice work, in these times especially, it might feel like there isn't a future in this–as if there is not a clear job for you, or there's not a clear mentor who has done exactly what you want to do and can help you get there. I think seizing those chances to believe in yourself and believe in the importance of that calling is what I would encourage people to do, and the way will present itself. You will meet your people. You will find your community.

Thanks very much, Jackie, for taking the time to speak with us!