Director
Northeast Florida Healthy Start Maternal and Child Health Policy and Research Center
Dr. LaVonne Brown, CHES, serves as Director of the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition Maternal and Child Health Policy Research Center. Her doctorate is in Behavior Education and Health Promotion from Jackson State University. In her dissertation, LaVonne designed, implemented, and evaluated the food research study, SAVOR—Sisters Adding Fruits and Vegetables Equals Optimal Results. This scholar alumnus of Jackson Heart Study (2015-2017) is a public health researcher. Her areas of expertise include Women’s Health, Nutrition, and Obesity prevention. The current focus of LaVonne's work is advancing policy and evidenced based research to inform maternal and infant health equity.
LaVonne's background is advocacy and public school education. This line of work, with children and families, spans 30 years covering the southern states of Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi, and international work in South Korea and Cape Town, South Africa, which includes volunteering with the orphans of the Soweto Uprising. One component of this experience is contributions to the University of Mississippi's Medical Center (UMMC) Community Advisory Board (CAB) for Clinical and Population Health Research (2018-2021).
Where did LaVonne's passion for health equity and upstream, public health policy come from? The catalyst of LaVonne's health equity research interests was the Office of Minority Health 2015 Summer Fellow with the Southeastern Health Equity Council and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). This experience broadened LaVonne's understanding of health inequities while working on the National CLAS standards and the Social Determinants of Health in relation to food systems and legislative regulation.
Aside from LaVonne's professional interests, she is life-long learner who shares an openness to new experiences. She thrives on the partnerships and collaborations that the Policy Research Center is developing. In her spare time, LaVonne enjoys Asian dramas, traveling, spending time with family and friends, and frequent beach trips.