Joyce Moon Howard

Dr. Joyce Moon Howard’s work and career are rooted in the community healthcare movement, where she witnessed the transformative power and positive impact of neighborhood and community action on healthcare.

Through community-based participatory research, she facilitates cooperation between researchers and community members to understand community needs and concerns, create lasting bonds that build trust, and empower communities to take action. While working in rural Tanzania on needs assessment, she engaged community members and employed qualitative strategies, such as photovoice, a research technique where community members photograph scenes to describe a particular problem and/or research theme, and focus groups, to create a space for open dialogue among community members and researchers to effectively address health needs. Further, she has served as principal investigator in several research studies: a Health Resources and Services Administration study on eliminating disparities among pregnant women in low-income areas in New York City; a National Institute of Child Health and Infant Development study focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention strategies in African American communities; and an National Institute on Aging study examining facilitators and barriers to CBPR at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

As a professor, Dr. Moon Howard shares her research experiences with students in community assessment and evaluation courses and in the undergraduate course Health, Society, and the Global Context.