Meredith Minkler DrPH ’75, MPH ’70 is a professor emerita of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and a Fulbright Specialist. Minkler is one of the pioneers of community-based participatory research (CBPR), which is a collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners’ perspectives and inputs. Her research interests include utilizing CBPR as a strategy for public policy, criminal justice reform, and decreasing food insecurity.

Secrets for success

Whether tackling HIV/AIDS in Africa or the epidemic of gun violence in the United States, real success demands working ‘with’ rather than ‘on’ communities.

Public health dream team

Dr. H Jack Geiger MD for his extraordinary vision and leadership in human and civil rights, founding of the Neighborhood Health Center Movement and Physicians for Social Responsibility, and being a consistent and courageous moral leader of our field for over 70 years. Dr. Joyce C. Lashof, our amazing former dean, who also was a leading and courageous voice in public health for social justice. And Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., because we have seldom-needed more urgently a national leader who can inspire our youth, build alliances across differences, and help everyone recognize that social justice is imperative for the public’s health and the survival of our planet.

Theme song while at Berkeley

Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ve got you under my skin’ because once I was bitten by the public health bug and the venom went ‘deep in the heart of me,’ there was no going back—any other career was unthinkable! The infectious disease implications of the song are a nice touch, though this particular malady doesn’t respond to a preventive vaccine or public health treatment approach.