Thomas A. LaVeist, PhD

Thomas A. LaVeist, Ph.D. has provided consultation services for numerous federal agencies and healthcare organizations on minority health and cultural competency issues and racial disparities in health. His recent documentary film project, “The Skin You’re In,” examines the astonishing African-American health  disparity - why it exists and what can be done about it.  Dr. LaVeist’s dissertation on racial disparities in infant mortality was awarded the 1989 Roberta G. Simmons Outstanding Dissertation Award by the American Sociological Association. He is the recipient of the “Innovation Award” from the National Institutes of Health, and the “Knowledge Award” from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of  Minority Health. In 2013 he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.  Dr. LaVeist has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals.  The second edition of his edited volume, Race, Ethnicity and Health: A Public Health Reader  (Jossey-Bass Publishers) was published fall 2012. His text-book, Minority Populations and Health: An Introduction to Race, Ethnicity and Health in the United States, (Jossey-Bass) was published in 2005. He is also the author of The DayStar Guide to Colleges for African American
Students (Stanly Kapkin/Simon and Schuster), and co-author of  “8 Steps to Help Black Families Pay for College (Princeton Review/Random House). His most recent book project, Legacy of the Crossing: Life, Death, and Triumph among Descendants of the World’s Largest Forced Migration,  is planned for publication in 2014. Dr. LaVeist received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, his doctorate degree in medical sociology from the University of Michigan and postdoctoral fellowship in public health at the Michigan School of Public Health.