Dr. Chris Pernell Speaker Biography
Visionary Public Health Leader and Health Justice Advocate
Dr. Chris T. Pernell is a trailblazing public health physician and nationally recognized social change agent. As a Mayo Clinic physician speaker and health equity thought leader, she combines bold vision with community-driven action. In her role as Director of the NAACP Center for Health Equity, she champions equitable health outcomes while reimagining systems of care. Her work promotes whole-person wellness through population health, disease prevention, and cultural humility. Prior to joining the NAACP, she founded The Esther Group, a public health strategy firm that pushes organizations to innovate for humanity’s future. Through The Esther Group, Dr. Pernell delivers tailored equity solutions to communities and institutions ready for real change. Moreover, her impact reaches beyond policy into grassroots transformation. Whether she’s addressing national health forums or advising local leaders, Dr. Chris brings both conviction and compassion to every stage she steps onto. Her leadership exemplifies purpose-driven healthcare at its highest level.
Transforming Systems Through Health Equity Leadership
Dr. Pernell previously served as the first Chief Strategic Integration and Health Equity Officer at University Hospital in Newark. There, she directed major initiatives in population health, community relations, strategic planning, and patient-centered care. Under her leadership, the hospital’s equity strategy evolved into a national case study. She wove together diversity, antiracism, and inclusion principles with institutional operations—bridging clinical care and cultural awareness. While her work was deeply rooted in policy and systems transformation, it always remained people-focused. At every step, she uplifted historically marginalized voices within healthcare. As a Mayo Clinic physician speaker, she continues to share best practices for integrating health equity across organizations of all sizes. From academic centers to safety-net hospitals, Dr. Pernell has helped reshape the way institutions measure success. Equity isn’t just a value—it’s a strategy. Her talks equip leaders to align their missions with the realities of race, place, and power in healthcare today.
Health System Innovation and Labor Empowerment
Before University Hospital, Dr. Pernell led the 1199SEIU/League Labor Management Initiatives’ Workplace and Community Health Program. Collaborating with the largest healthcare union in the country, she worked alongside frontline workers and C-suite leaders to improve health outcomes. Her strategy blended system-level innovation with grassroots empowerment. She developed workplace health models that addressed not only physical wellness, but also social and emotional resilience. Additionally, she helped steer community-based responses to chronic disease and health disparities. Through this work, Dr. Pernell gained rare insights into the nexus of labor rights, public health, and healthcare transformation. Her continued involvement with workforce development initiatives ensures that equity includes economic justice. Today, as a sought-after Mayo Clinic physician speaker, she brings a labor-informed lens to her keynote talks—ensuring that healthcare professionals understand the full scope of equity-driven care. She shows that empowered workers are vital to building healthier systems and stronger communities.
Awards, Recognition, and Impactful Public Engagement
Dr. Chris T. Pernell is regularly honored for her visionary leadership and contributions to medicine, equity, and civic health. She has received accolades including the ROI-NJ Top 150 Business Leaders distinction and the American College of Preventive Medicine’s Ron Davis Special Recognition Award. Furthermore, she was named to NJBiz’s list of Public Health Heroes and included among its Best 50 Women in Business. The Mayo Clinic Plummer Society and other prestigious bodies have recognized her efforts to communicate science with clarity and humanity. Beyond awards, her greatest influence may lie in her ability to inspire. She frequently appears on national media, weighing in on healthcare disparities, social justice, and community wellness. Whether advising policymakers or mentoring youth, Dr. Pernell’s voice carries uncommon authority and authenticity. As a Mayo Clinic physician speaker, she uses every platform to spark transformation. Her work proves that purpose, when paired with expertise, can drive systemic change.
Educator, Advocate, and Global Faith Leader
Dr. Pernell holds degrees from Princeton, Duke University School of Medicine, and Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. She completed her preventive medicine residency at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Today, she is a fellow and Regent-at-Large with the American College of Preventive Medicine and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Previously, she taught at NYU’s College of Global Public Health. Additionally, she serves as a faith leader with BET HaSHEM YHWH Worldwide Ministries, traveling globally to uplift individuals and communities. Whether teaching in the classroom or preaching abroad, she integrates science, spirituality, and service. Her voice brings healing to the clinic, the pulpit, and the podium. As one of the nation’s most inspiring public health advocates and a trusted Mayo Clinic physician speaker, Dr. Chris T. Pernell is guiding a new generation of leaders toward justice, wellness, and transformational change.
Dr. Chris Pernell Speaking Topics
Health Equity: A Prescription & Toolkit for Sick Systems & a Brave New World
Data and disparities don't lie. Narratives and lived experiences across diverse and inclusive populations tell an undeniable tale of two cities. One with advantages and privileges rooted in a social, economic, political, and racial caste that positively impacts individual and population-level health outcomes and another with disadvantages and barriers borne out of the inequalities found on the flip side of the coin. This session covers a range of topics in health equity and the social and political determinants of health, including how best to design brave practices that heal and uproot system sickness and advance human-centered solutions that spur all people to thrive.
JEDI, Use the Force!
Language is the frame that sparks mutual understanding and coalesces a shared vision that catalyzes action to build and shape a more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive world. This session shows how J.E.D.I. (Justice. Equity. Diversity. Inclusion) is a tool to drive population health, the human experience, and creative and innovative business environments that transform deficits and inequities in our organizations, systems, and communities into opportunities for growth, accountability, human intelligence, and social and cultural fluency. Through a historical and contemporary lens, the session challenges the audience to withstand the race to deny our past, face our present, and dare the catalyst for a more secure future. Ultimately, it provokes each person or organization to see that our mutual web of humanity is only as strong as the assets we intentionally seek and cultivate in one another and how effectively we share power!
Human Experience: Finding the Critical Mass
The human experience is defined as the interplay and connective tissue that links all people along the many intersections of identity and across various groups. At a time when division is palpable, and systems of inequity and othering like racism, sexism, and health and wealth inequalities risk our collective well-being, this session sets out to define "critical mass" as a theory of change/action that tips the scale in the direction of progressive transformation and sustainable change movements. Even if those catalytic opportunities represent nascent ideas among a sea of well-established and rehearsed rhetoric and practice norms, a critical mass of doers and innovators can engineer "upstream" interventions that demonstrate impact and viability and then steer the diffusion of innovation. For instance, how best do we incentivize prevention and wellness to keep people from falling off the Cliff of Good Health, as Dr. Camara Jones has described? In the 21st century, how do we spark change in the face of glass cliffs, glass ceilings, two-sided social coins, and skewed and bent trees? We build the critical mass.
V.U.C.A: Harnessing Systems Disruption & Innovation to Break the Pendulum Cycle
VUCA is an acronym for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments. Today's leaders and change architects must convert chaotic VUCA conditions into systems and experiences rooted in vision, unity, clarity, and agility. System disruption and innovation require discerning when an opportunity presents itself, how best to see around corners, and knowing when to bend the system or whether to break it all together and redesign it from scratch. In every VUCA circumstance or time period, new voices and disruptors emerge to engage in sensemaking akin to making magic out of mayhem. We experienced this phenomenon during the recent global pandemic. Unless we can anticipate the pendulum swing that endangers our collective progress, we risk a precipitous slide away from the values that will champion and produce new heights. Knowing the difference between value on investment (VOI) and return on investment (ROI) is key. This session will teach the audience how to perform that assessment and find the unique intersection of passion, pain, and purpose to harness power and deliver wholesale solutions.
Beyond Public Health: The Power of Narrative and Storytelling to Change Hearts, Spur Action, & Dare Policies
Now more than ever, the public's health is susceptible to attack because science, data, and facts have been assailed, and misinformation and disinformation have gained a competitive advantage. Public health must build and strengthen its narrative muscle in authentic, inclusive, and human-centered ways. It matters the data and impact stories we elevate, who plays the role of storyteller, and the accountability we live out that invites mutual trust, especially among historically excluded populations and other groups who have been marginalized or made vulnerable by policy violence and information wars. Every so often, we in public health name a new iteration: Public Health 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and beyond. But to influence human behavior and collective action in the most health-promoting and lifesaving efforts, to advance equity, to close gaps and eliminate disparities, to design hubs of healing and captivate the imagination of society, we need a deeper, more creative, and cross-trained field and bench.
Dr. Chris Pernell Books
