Public Health Powerhouses: International Women’s Day Spotlight

By Liz Peters and Kristen Coco

We can learn a lot from history, especially when it comes to scientific advancements in the field of public health. Some of the earliest public health professionals were architects, designing spaces that responded to our bodies’ needs.

As highlighted in the IWBI Special Report, in the late 1800s, when tuberculosis was killing one in every seven people in the U.S. and Europe, doctors found an unexpected ally: architects. Medical professionals recognized that patient health was tied to their environments, leading architects to design sanatoriums filled with light, fresh air and access to nature. These spaces helped people heal.

Today, we know that buildings play a vital role in our well-being, though the people behind them often went unnoticed—many of them women.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we’re reflecting on influential leaders in public health.

An original champion of the workplace, Alice Hamilton (February 27, 1869 – September 22, 1970) was a leading expert in the field of occupational health. She was a pioneer in the field of toxicology, studying occupational illnesses and the dangerous effects of industrial metals and chemical compounds on the human body, notably lead poisoning. Hamilton published numerous benchmark studies that helped raise awareness of dangers in the workplace.

“No young doctor nowadays can hope for work as exciting and rewarding.”

Professor Christhina Candido is an architect who directs the SHE – Sustainable and Healthy Environments – Lab at the University of Melbourne, Australia. The SHE Lab develops a program of applied research aimed at understanding how the built environment can improve sustainability and health. A champion of the WELL movement, WELL Faculty member and member of the IWBI Global Research Advisory, Candido frequently publishes work related to enhancing the human experience in the built environment.

“People are starting to realize that we need to be provided with different types of infrastructure, different spaces within the same open office plan to actually do all of our activities, because we don’t do the same thing during the whole day.”

Clare Cooper Marcus is an exemplary figure in environmental psychology and architecture, focused on the relationship between the built environment and well-being, emphasizing the public health benefits of green spaces, natural light and the integration of nature into residential and public buildings–finding gardens to be a therapeutic outlet. Based in the UK, she worked on projects that highlighted the importance of building designs that promote mental and physical health, particularly in urban areas.

“Research has shown that if people have certain conditions and then have access to nature, they may call for fewer pain killers. That’s certainly significant.”

City-phile Jane Jacobs’ (May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) work in urban planning and design had a profound effect on public health. With a focus on New York City, she advocated for community-based urban planning and fought against urban renewal projects that disrupted local communities. Her ideas, particularly about walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use developments and the importance of green spaces have influenced public health by emphasizing environments that promote physical and mental well-being.

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

Michelle A. Williams, SM ’88, ScD, is a renowned epidemiologist, an award-winning educator, and a widely recognized academic leader. Since stepping down as Dean of the Faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she joined Stanford University’s School of Medicine faculty as a tenured Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health. Prior to becoming Dean, she was Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School and Program Leader of the Population Health and Health Disparities Research Programs at Harvard’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Center.

Over the course of her career in public health, Dr. Williams has dedicated herself to advancing innovative research, training the next generation of public health professionals and communicating evidenced-based information that can help individuals and policy makers improve public health.

Recently, Dr. Williams joined IWBI at our WELL Conference, serving as a key signatory of the International Healthy Building Accord, seeking to redefine the future of our built environment, emphasizing the critical role of health in building design, construction and operations.

“If we are looking for improving health [and] decreasing disparities, we’re going to have to make sure that we are collecting high-quality data on human behaviors, as well as the social and physical environment.”

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