February 4, 2025

Ana V. Diez Roux, MD, PhD, MPH, Director of the Drexel Urban Health Collaborative (UHC) and Distinguished University Professor of Epidemiology at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH) and Usama Bilal, MD, PhD, MPH, Co-Director of the UHC and Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at DSPH have been appointed as Co-Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Urban Health.

The referent peer-reviewed journal for the field, the Journal of Urban Health was established in 1851 as The Transactions of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and is now published by Springer Science+Business Media along with the NYAM. It is the premier and authoritative source of rigorous analyses to advance the health and well-being of people in cities, and one of the few peer-reviewed periodicals devoted to urban health.

In addition to being Director of the UHC, Dr. Diez Roux was Dean of DSPH from 2014-2023. Prior to that, she served on the faculties of Columbia University and the University of Michigan, where she was Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health.

Before joining the UHC in 2017, Dr. Bilal held research positions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of Alcalá, and the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research.

“On behalf of the Journal of Urban Health, I am thrilled to welcome Ana Diez Roux and Usama Bilal as our new Co-Editors-in-Chief,” said NYAM's President, Ann Kurth, PhD, CNM, MPH. “Ana and Usama bring a wealth of experience and renowned expertise in urban health and social and environmental determinants of health, and we are excited for their vision and leadership as we begin our second century of publication of the Journal. I also want to extend our deepest gratitude to David Vlahov, PhD, RN, FAAN, for his exceptional contributions and dedication during his 25-year tenure, which have greatly shaped the Journal's success, and are happy to honor him as Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. Please join me in welcoming Ana and Usama to this new role!”

Diez Roux and Bilal are internationally recognized for their work on urban health both in the US and globally. A key focus of their work has been understanding how urban environments broadly defined impact health and health inequities and how urban policies can be leveraged to improve both health and environmental sustainability. They have increasingly also focused on the impact of climate change on urban health and the implications for multisectoral action.

The Journal of Urban Health provides a forum linking scholars, practitioners, civil society, and policy makers from the multiple sectors that can influence the health of urban populations. It publishes original data, case studies, commentaries, book reviews, executive summaries of selected reports, and proceedings from important global meetings.

In an editorial that will be published in the February 2025 issue, A New Phase for the Journal of Urban Health, Diez Roux and Bilal outline their vision and priorities for the Journal, which includes emphasizing novel descriptions of health variations between cities, the impact of climate change and other environmental factors on health and health equity, evaluating urban policies, the use of novel methodologies, and focusing on dissemination of urban health evidence to relevant stakeholders.