Derek M. Griffith, PhD, is awarded a Presidential Citation for his extraordinary leadership in addressing the impacts of racism on the health and wellbeing of the nation and specifically for African American and Latino men. Griffith’s scholarship shines a bright light of inquiry into the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation by developing evidence-based programs to eliminate ethnic health disparities and recognizing and promoting legal redress for discrimination in health and health care.
Griffith is a founding co-director of the Racial Justice Institute, founder and director of the Center for Men’s Health Equity, member of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, and professor of health management and policy and oncology at Georgetown University. He recently was elected chair of the Global Action on Men's Health initiative and appointed to be on the board of directors of the Men's Health Network.
As a public health psychologist, Griffin researches the concepts of intersectionality and manhood to men’s health, examines the impact of institutional racism on racial, ethnic and gender inequities in health. He develops and tests community-based, individually tailored and precision lifestyle medicine interventions to prevent and control obesity and chronic diseases in African American and Latino men. He specializes in interventions to promote Black men's health and well-being; interventions to address racism in organizations and interventions to mitigate the effects of structural racism on health. Ongoing research projects within the Center for Men’s Health Equity include a series of fatherhood focus groups to examine social, cultural, and environmental factors that influence behaviors among new fathers; FitBrothers, a study to understand African American men’s beliefs about utilizing a mobile phone app to assist in maintaining their physical activity habits and which helps researchers who develop interventions and mobile phone apps to understand what benefits African American men in being successful at changing lifestyle behaviors; a faith-based weight-loss intervention program to reduce cancer disparities in African American men, entitled Mighty Men; and the Rooted & Rising collective to support creative entrepreneurs with tools, resources, and mentoring to develop and grow their passions into sustainable creative businesses.
A prolific scholar, Griffith is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and he has been the principal investigator of research grants from the American Cancer Society, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and several institutes within the National Institutes of Health. Griffith serves on the editorial boards of several public health and men's health journals, and he has been a guest editor of journal special issues or supplements on African American men's health, men's health equity, qualitative approaches to health equity research, and other topics. Griffith has also edited and been a contributor of three books: Men’s Health Equity: A Handbook (Routledge, 2019), Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional (APHA Press, 2019), and Health Promotion with Adolescent Boys and Young Men of Colour: Global Strategies for Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice in Context (Springer, 2023). He has been interviewed for and quoted in national news outlets such as Ebony, NPR, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Griffith has provided expert review of reports from the World Health Organization and others. Griffith’s scholarship equips psychology and public health professionals to acknowledge the impacts of racism on health and well-being globally and also to become actively antiracist.