Annaka Scheeres, MPH

Doctoral Student

Annaka Scheeres is a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. She works with Dr. Josiah L. Kephart on projects about how climate change affects the health of urban populations, specifically how heat affects the mental and physical health of youth living in cities. She is passionate about using research to help governmental agencies develop equitable, evidence-based strategies that protect people who are most vulnerable to environmental exposures. Before starting her doctoral program, Annaka worked at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health for almost a decade. She started as a research associate focused on chronic disease, injury prevention, and the built environment, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped develop systems for tracking cases and contacts. Most recently, she worked as a research scientist in the Health Commissioner’s Office, where she led the department's vital statistics reporting and developed PhilaStats. She received an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as a Bloomberg American Health Fellow and a BS in Biology/BA in Environmental Studies (Geography concentration) from Calvin College.