Public Health Professor Earns Fulbright

Moved by the plight of those most in need both locally and globally, Preety Gadhoke, Ph.D., M.P.H., St. John’s University Associate Professor of Public Health, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, was recently awarded a prestigious US Fulbright Research Award to explore a food access project in Sydney, Australia. During the Spring 2021 semester, Dr. Gadhoke will complete a fellowship at the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology.

Dr. Gadhoke is a mission-driven faculty member who is passionate about achieving global health equity through structural interventions by applying social justice and human rights lenses for marginalized, underserved populations. “I am proud and excited to bring my St. John’s experience to the other side of the globe and to draw upon the collaborative research already being conducted at the University regarding the specific challenges that COVID-19 has presented for the New York metropolitan community.”

As a tenured Associate Professor of Public Health, Dr. Gadhoke works at the intersectionality of social determinants of health, food and nutrition, resilience, and sustainable development. On campus, she is a research fellow at the Vincentian Center for Church and Society and a faculty mentor for the Ozanam Scholars and the Ronald E. McNair Scholars programs. She also regularly engages in community-driven research.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Australian wildfires, Dr. Gadhoke will now use her Fulbright Scholarship in Global Health to work on a food access research project at ISF. Over four months, she will establish new research collaborations with ISF partners to inform policy action for sustainable urban food systems and chronic disease prevention in Sydney.

“Dr. Gadhoke exemplifies not only the research focus of St. John’s, but also the Catholic, Vincentian mission of exploring critical issues that impact those most in need,” observed Simon G. Møller, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers approximately 470 teaching, research, or combination teaching/researching awards in more than 125 countries. Opportunities are available for college and university faculty and administrators, as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars, and others. At present, there is a national ban on all visa and nonresident travelers to Australia, but the program continues to announce scholars.