Office Director, Office of Community Health Improvement
Mississippi State Department of Health
Dr. White is the director of the Office of Community Health Improvement at the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), overseeing three bureaus: Healthy Aging, Injury and Violence Prevention, and Community and School Health. Dr. White is the principal investigator for multiple federal grant programs and serves as the state lead for the Age-Friendly Public Health Systems Initiative with Trust for America’s Health. Under Dr. White’s leadership, MSDH achieved exemplar status as the third US-recognized Age-Friendly Public Health System in May 2023. Strategic efforts are underway for the expansion of age- and dementia friendly communities, universities, and health systems to advance the development of Mississippi’s age-friendly ecosystem.
Dr. White is a published author and serves on the National Rural Age-Friendly Initiative Interest Group, the UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Center for Brain Health Equity Adivsory Committee, the National Center to Reframe Aging Advisory Board, the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation Inclusive Research Initiative Advisory Committee, and the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center's Expert Work Group. She formally served on the the NYU BOLD Public Health Center of Excellence on Early Detection of Dementia, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Equity Advisory Group. Dr. White has been selected to participate in the 2024-25 Milbank Memorial Fund’s Emerging Leaders Program. She is a board-certified fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) and currently serves as Regent for the state chapter of the ACHE of Mississippi. With more than 20 years of healthcare leadership experience, Dr. White is an equity strategist and change agent with a sincere passion to increase equitable access to care and improve community health outcomes for underrepresented populations.
Dr. White holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Southern Mississippi, a Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and a Doctor of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from Jackson State University. In addition, she has completed a two-year NIH-R25 Clinical and Community-Based HIV/AIDS Research Training fellowship at Brown University. Dr. White is an alumnus of the Mississippi Economic Council’s Leadership Mississippi program. She is an adjunct faculty member at Belhaven University in Adult, Graduate, and Online Studies. Dr. White is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
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Socially Determined: The Healthcare Executive's Role in Health Equity (36H)
Monday, March 24, 2025
4:30pm – 5:30pm CT