Dabney Evans
Associate Professor
Faculty, Global Health
Jointly Appointed, Behavioral/Social/Health Educ

Dabney P. Evans, PhD, MPH is an exceptional public health leader, serving as an Associate Professor of Global Health at the Hubert Department of Health in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She is a mixed-methods researcher of issues affecting vulnerable populations at the intersection of public health and human rights. 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. In July 2017 she assumed the position of 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 forty Master’s theses.
Through her scholarly research, Dr. Evans has charted new interdisciplinary paths uniting public health, human rights and humanitarian response. Dr. Evans’ current research projects focus on sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence. Her current work includes a study of the relationship between anti-femicide legislation and of intimate partner violence in Brazil.
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 thirty book chapters, scholarly articles and commissioned works; she has made over 100 peer-reviewed and invited presentations. Her public scholarship has appeared in the Pacific Standard, the Atlanta Journal Constitution 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 chair of the Human Rights Forum of the American Public Health Association. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award (2007), 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) and the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Early Career Teaching Award (2018). She is a Board member of Medical Education in Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC) and represents Emory University on the steering committee of the Interagency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crisis.
She is fluent in Portuguese.
Contact Information
1518 Clifton Rd , Claudia Nance Rollins Building, Room 6053
Atlanta , GA 30322
1518-002-7BB
Phone: (404) 727-3061
Fax: 404-727-1835
Email: dabney.evans@emory.edu
URL: www.dabneyevans.com
Areas of Interest
- Behavior and Health
- Global Health
- Injury & Violence Prevention
- Public Health Practice
- Public Health Preparedness and Response
- Reproductive Health
- Sexual Health/Behavior
Education
- BA 1996, Arizona State Unviersity
- MPH 1998, Emory Unviersity
- PhD 2010, University of Aberdeen (UK)
Courses Taught
- GH 591Q: EPI INFO
- GH 526: Interdisc. Persp. Human Rights
- GH 599R: Thesis
- GH 508: Health & Human Rights Seminar
Publications
- Castro KG, Evans DP, del Rio C, and Curran J. , 2018, Seven deadly sins resulting from CDC’s seven-word exclusion. , Annals of Internal Medicine. , ,
- Foster AM, Evans DP, Garcia M, Knaster S, Krause S, McGinn T, Rich S, Shah M, Tappis H and Wheeler E., 2018, The 2018 Inter-Agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings: Revising the global standards., Reproductive Health Matters. , ,
- Angel J, Evans DP, 2017, ‘Why are we not doing more for them?’: lessons for public health on genocide prevention from the Kindertransport, Public Health, Public Health, 153, 36-43
- Evans DP, Luffy SM, Parisi S and del Rio C. , 2017, The development of a Massive Open Online Course during the 2014-15 Ebola Virus Disease epidemic. , Annals of Epidemiology. , ,
- Evans DP, Vertamatti M and Conchão S. , 2017, Understanding the Relationship between Violence against Women-related Laws and Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence among Women in Brazil. , Annals of Global Health, 83, 99-100
- Crawford R, Rutz D and Evans DP, 2016, “Between the Combat Boots and Birkenstocks”- Lessons from HIV/AIDS, SARS, H1N1 and Ebola, Public Health, 141, 186-191
- McCulloch, A, Evans, DP, 2016, Georgia Latino Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act: A Qualitative, Key Informant Analysis., Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association, 5, 314-323
- Evans DP, Anderson M, Shapar C, del Rio C, Curran JW, 2016, Innovation in Graduate Education for Health in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 31, 1-7
- Gattegno MV, Wilkins JD, and Evans DP. , 2016, The relationship between the Maria da Penha Law and intimate partner violence in two Brazilian states., International Journal for Equity in Health. , ,
- Luffy SM, Evans DP, Rochat RW. , 2015, “It is better if I kill her”: perceptions and opinions of violence against women and femicide in Ocotal, Nicaragua after Law 779. , Violence and Gender, 2, 107-111
- Luffy SM, Evans DP, Rochat RW. , 2015, “Siempre me critican”: barriers to reproductive health in Ocotal,Nicaragua, Rev Panam Salud Publica. , 37, 245-250
- Chiang ED, Baker ML, Downing DF, Baggio ML, Villa L, Neto JE, Hadley C, Bednarczyk RA and Evans DP. , 2015, “Those who love, vaccinate”: Parental perceptions of HPV vaccination, Journal of Human Growth and Development, 25, 341-350
- Martin, LS and Evans, DP, 2015, Conflict as a Social Determinant of Health, SM Public Health and Epidemiology, 1, 108
- Evans DP, Donato CE, Malewezi BA, Li AJ, Mitchell AB, and Corea MJ. , 2015, Outcomes among asylum seekers in Atlanta, Georgia, 2003-2012, MEDICC Review, 17, 12-17
- Baker, ML, Figueroa-Downing, D, Chinag ED, VIlla L, Baggio ML, Neto JE, Bednarczyk, R, Evans, DP, 2015, Paving Pathways: Brazil’s implementation of a national human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization campaign. , Pan American Journal of Public Health, 38,
- Winskell, K, Evans, D, Stephenson, R, del Rio, C, Curran, JW, 2014, Incorporating global health competencies into the public health curriculum. , Public Health Reports, 129, 203-208
- Albuquerque, A and Evans D., 2013, Right to Health in Brazil: A Study of the Treaty-Reporting System, SUR, 9, 115-140
- Beracochea, Elvira, Weinstein, Corey and Evans, Dabney , 2010, Rights-Based Appraoches to Public Health, Springer Publishing Company, ,
- Evans, Dabney and Hougendobler, Dan, 2010, Sergio: A curriculum for teaching college and graduate students, HBO Documentary Films, ,
- Evans, Dabney and Price, Megan, 2009, Measure for Measure: Utilizing Legal Norms and Health data in Measuring the Right to Health, Methods of Human Rights Research, Intersentia, , 111-131
- Evans, Dabney, 2009, Physicians for Human Rights, Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Oxford University Press, , 239-245
- Evans DP, 2009, Physicians for Human Rights, In Encyclopedia of Human Rights, edited by David P. Forsythe. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4, 239-245
- Evans DP., 2008, “Salud para todo: Cuba’s revolutionary approach towards the fulfillment of the right to health” , in Patricia Cholewka, Mitra M Motlagh (Editors) Health Capital and Sustainable Socioeconomic Development (Chapter 15). Taylor and Francis CRC Press., ,
- Evans, D, Buxton, DC, Borisov, A, Manatunga, AK, Ngodup, D, Raison, CL., 2008, “Shattered Shangri-la: Differences in depressive and anxiety symptoms in students born in Tibet compared to students born in exile”, Soc Psychiatry and Psychiatr Epidemiol. , ,
- Ewert, L and Evans, D, 2008, Human Rights, in Neil Arya and Joanna Santa Barbara (Editors) Peace Through Health: How Health Professionals Can Work for a Less Violent World (Chapter 11). Kumarian., ,
- Evans, DP, Price, ME, Gulrajani, TL, and Hinman, AR., 2006, “Making the grade: A first attempt at a health and human rights report card”, Health and Human Rights, 9, 281-296
- Kohrt, B and Evans, D, 2004, “No refuge for persecuted neighbors: Human Rights and Asylum in the Americas.” , Ameriquests, 1,