Jennifer Johnson, Ph.D.

Board Member

Chief Translation Officer, MSU Office of Health Sciences
Chair, MSU Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health

Jennifer Johnson, Ph.D., is Chief Translation Officer in the Office of Health Sciences at Michigan State University. She is also Chair of the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health, a C. S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health, professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, and professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Michigan State University.

Dr. Johnson is a licensed clinical psychologist who conducts policy-relevant mental health, suicide prevention, and maternal health care implementation and effectiveness research. Her work champions healthcare access and equity for individuals interacting with criminal-legal systems, pregnant and postpartum people, and people living in disinvested communities such as Flint, Michigan. She has been a principal investigator of 21 research studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, including the National Center for Health and Justice Integration for Suicide Prevention (NCHATS) and the Maternal Health Multilevel Interventions for Racial Equity (MIRACLE) Center of Research Excellence in Women’s Health.

Johnson received her bachelor’s degree in applied physics and doctorate in clinical psychology from Brigham Young University. She then completed a T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Treatment Research at Brown University, where she was faculty until coming to Michigan State University in 2015.