Dabney  Evans

Dabney P. Evans, PhD, MPH is an exceptional public health leader, serving as an Associate Professor of Global Health in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She is a mixed-methods researcher focused on the health and human rights of women and girls. Dr. Evans received her Master of Public Health degree in 1998 from Emory University and her doctoral degree in law from the University of Aberdeen (UK) in 2011. She is architect and Director of the Center for Humanitarian Emergencies in the Rollins School of Public Health and the Emory University Institute of Human Rights - both focus on capacity building.  Between 2017-2019 she served as Interim director for the Emory University Institute of Developing Nations.  

As one of the first faculty to include health and human rights in the public health curriculum, Dr. Evans is an established teacher and trainer. Since 2010, her teaching and training activities have touched over 19,000 learners from 171 countries; she is responsible for the training of one in every ten employees at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Dr. Evans was the instructor of the first English language massive open online course on Ebola Virus Disease and a Coursera on Health in Humanitarian Emergencies. She was the instructor of the “University Course” on Global Security and Leadership in a Complex World.  She has mentored over fifty Master’s theses.  She has served as Co-Director of Graduate Studies for the Hubert Department of Global Health since 2016.  

Dr. Evans’ current research projects focus on gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.  Her global research portfolio includes projects on: intimate partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic (US); the commercial sexual exploitation of children (US); femicide prevention (Brazil);  and femicide perpetration (Argentina). 

An editor of the text, Rights-Based Approaches to Health, Dr. Evans has advanced human rights discourse across a range of public health issues.  Dr. Evans has published over forty book chapters, scholarly articles and commissioned works; she has made over 200 peer-reviewed and invited presentations.  Her public scholarship has appeared in the Pacific Standard, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Ms. Magazine and The Hill, where she is a regular contributor; in 2015 she presented a TEDx talk.  She is on several editorial boards.   

Dr. Evans is a member of the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society, Omicron Delta Kappa National Service Honor Society, past-president of the Georgia Federation of Professional Health Educators, and past chair of the Human Rights Forum of the American Public Health Association. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Crystal Apple for excellence in professional school education (2015), the Unsung Heroine Award (2016), the American Public Health Association Mid-Career Award in International Health (2017), the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Early Career Teaching Award (2018) and the Hubert Department of Public Health Research Award (2021). She is a Board member of the Feminist Women’s Health Center and represents Emory University on the steering committee of the Interagency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crisis.  She is fluent in Portuguese.