Name: Shivonne Laird, Ph.D.
Title: System Director, Community Health Impact for Bon Secours Mercy Health
Dr. Shivonne L. Laird, serves as System Director, Community Health Impact for Bon Secours Mercy Health (BSMH) – Dr. Laird’s service to the BSMH team includes system-wide coordination of: community benefit processes/review/analysis; understanding local community initiatives; creation of metrics/outcomes; and research-related activities for community health. Dr. Laird also serves as a subject matter expert on health equity, health disparity reduction, and social drivers of health (SDoH) across BSMH teams. Prior to joining BSMH, Dr. Laird served as a Program Officer for the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), responsible for strategic decision-making and high-level management and monitoring of the program, its funded projects, and program activities that advanced PCORI’s Engagement mission. She has also served as a senior advisor in the Office of Legislation of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). As a liaison between HRSA and members of Congress and their staff, her work included advising office, agency, and department senior leadership on legislative analysis, policy, and programmatic activities. She has worked in academic settings, conducting qualitative and quantitative research related to disparities in health and healthcare, presenting results to bothtechnical and non-technical audiences. Dr. Laird received a Bachelor of Arts in biological sciences from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. She earned an Masters in Public Health (MPH) in international health policy and management from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Laird has also earned a PhD in health behavior and society, focused on health communication, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
1. Do you believe Medicine alone can solve health problems?
No, I don’t think Medicine alone can solve problems. In public health, we would call clinical treatment a “downstream” solution to a health problem. This term is often connected to a famous quote, attributed to Desmond Tutu:
“ There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in”
Public health is about going “upstream” and understanding why people are falling into the river in the first place and preventing that from happening.
Most recently, there is a push to focus on “social determinants” (or “social drivers”) of health for solutions. This concept examines things like why similar people who live in different zip codes even 5 miles apart can have an expected lifespan that is 20 years different — one can be expected to live 20 years longer than the other just because of where they live. Medicine has a limited ability to affect factors like this.
2. What would a truly healthy society look like?
In a truly healthy society, everyone would have the ability to live the longest and most healthy life that their genetics allows. In a healthy society there are no preventable barriers to good health.
3. What is one health problem people misunderstand?
Mental/behavioral health problems are often very misunderstood. Everything from addiction to ADHD to depression. Others often think that people with these conditions are weak or lazy or lack the discipline to behave differently. In some cultures, prayer is the only recommended “treatment.” They don’t understand that there are biological reasons for some of these mental health conditions, that they may require therapy and/or medication.
4. What should young people learn about public health?
Young people should learn that health is more than medical treatment, and that they can be public health practitioners no matter their age. Volunteering at food pantries to make sure everyone has access to healthy meals (“food insecurity”). Volunteering to taxi peers home, no questions asked, should they get drunk at a party – Students Against Drunk Driving did this when I was younger (“violence prevention”). Planting or maintaining community gardens or green spaces (“environmental health;” “food insecurity”). Even babysitting can allow a parent to go seek healthcare after work or attend a health education session (“access to care”). Look around your community, talk to people about what they need, and think about ways that you and your friends can help.
5. What made you interested in healthcare?
I have wanted to be in healthcare for as long as I can remember – even as a small child, taking blood pressure of my dolls and listening to them with a stethoscope. I grew up surrounded by healthcare professionals, mostly nurses, who had dedicated their lives to helping people. My mother, specifically, is a nurse who always practiced in areas where people needed the most help to be healthy, usually poorer areas of town. It was a calling for her, and she taught me that helping the vulnerable is what we are all supposed to do. It is now a calling for me, too.
The Global Pulse 