John Blevins

As part of the faculty in the Hubert Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health, Dr. Blevins is the Director of the Interfaith Health Program (IHP) and Director of Social-Behavioral Sciences for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Network.  

Prior to joining the Global Health faculty, he worked as a chaplain to persons with HIV/AIDS in Atlanta and Chicago; coordinated patient education services for people living with HIV/AIDS in Atlanta's public health system; managed a clinical training program on HIV, mental illness, and drug use in the Emory University School of Medicine; and served on the faculty of the Candler School of Theology at Emory. Dr. Blevins has served as a consultant for the Emory School of Medicine in the fields of mental health, substance abuse, and HIV; in that capacity he provided clinical education to practitioners in various HIV public health programs around the southeastern United States.

Dr. Blevins brings interdisciplinary scholarship and practice into the study of religion and public health.  He currently holds secondary appointments in the Global Health and Development program and in the Graduate Division of Religion in Emory's Laney Graduate School and serves on the Executive Committee of Emory's Religion and Public Health Collaborative.  Dr. Blevins teaches two elective courses in religion and public health; one looks at HIV and the other looks at sexual and reproductive health by examining religions' varied influneces on these two topics in global contexts.  These courses are cross-listed with other schools at Emory including the Candler School of Theology, offering Rollins students a distinctive opportunity for interdisciplinary learning.  In addition, Dr. Blevins teaches Health Systems, Social Justice, and Equity, a core course in the global health 

He is author of numerous peer-reviewed articles in religion and public health that inform scholarship not only in public health but also in the social sciences and humanities.  In addition, he is author of To Transfer the Empire of the World: Christianity's Influence on United States Global Health and Development Policy (Routledge Press, 2019), a social history of the influences of American religious beliefs and narratives on global health programs from the 19th century to the present.