Janine M. Jurkowski

Janine M. Jurkowski is a professor in social, behavior and community health. She is passionate about improving health inequities and the diversity of the public health workforce. She works to incorporate anti-racist and participatory action research values into her teaching and research. Her research and administrative work promotes mutually beneficial community engagement initiatives between academia and community organizations, government agencies and individuals who historically do not have a voice in factors that affect their lives. In her research, she employs a community-based participatory research approach (CBPR) and studies the integration of Empowerment Theory in intervention research with low income families. As a teacher, she aims to give her students real-world experiences as they develop knowledge and skills in community health and health inequities. Dr. Jurkowski was Associate Dean for Public Health Practice for 7.5 years and partnered with multiple organizations to advance student and faculty engagement while being a resource to the Capital Region. She was a Provost Fellow for Publicly Engaged Research and Teaching with the goal to change the university culture to accept and support community-engaged and transdisciplinary research and teaching. During this fellowship, she worked to incorporate publicly-engaged language into the tenure and promotion guidelines at the university level. She presented the importance of publicly-engaged research and teaching to university partners, vice presidents, and deans. Currently, she is working a tool kit to provide publicly-engaged faculty with strategies for developing a trajectory and ultimately a dossier that includes publicly engaged scholarship.

Research Interests

Dr. Jurkowski conducts research on social determinants of health disparities using a Community-Based Participatory Research Approach among women and their families, specifically focusing on low-income and disadvantaged women. Historically, Dr. Jurkowski has also worked with Latinos and people with disabilities. She has experience conducting intervention research with a focus on family-centered childhood obesity prevention in Head Start. She has expertise in cross cultural survey methods and qualitative methods including focus group and Photovoice methodology. Dr. Jurkowski has worked with community partners in the Amsterdam Latino community, Chicago, Boston, and the Capital Region of New York.