Dr. Judith H. Lichtman

Judith H. Lichtman, PhD, MPH, is Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology in the
Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, CT. She received her Master of Public Health degree and PhD in Epidemiology at Yale University. Dr. Lichtman’s research focuses on examining the epidemiology of stroke and heart disease using longitudinal databases and prospective observational studies.

Dr. Lichtman has been the Principal Investigator for more than 25 externally funded research projects, including 14 National Institutes of Health awards. She has served on numerous national committees and writing groups for the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. She was the recipient of the C. Miller Fisher, MD Neuroscience Visionary Award from the AHA/ASA in 2018 and is a graduate of the Drexel University Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program.

Dr. Lichtman is the founding Director of the Humanities, Arts, and Public Health at Yale
(HAPPY) Initiative. Formed in early 2019 at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), HAPPY seeks to leverage the power of storytelling, using the arts and humanities to inspire the public to improve community health. Stories – whether they are films, plays, television, photography, poetry, dance, novels, music, painting, or design – can inspire and galvanize us to advocate for change. The HAPPY Initiative has three primary goals: 1) educate students about the possibility and impact of using humanities and arts to address important health issues, 2) develop collaborations and partnership across disciplines and within the community to develop and implement arts-based programs to address community health, and 3) conduct research and develop evaluation strategies to assess the impact of arts-based programming.