Amy Schulz Awarded University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship

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July 17, 2020

Amy Schulz, professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, was among four University of Michigan faculty members to be awarded a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship, effective August 31, 2020. The appointment was approved by the University of Michigan regents on July 16, 2020.

Established in 2019, the professorship recognizes senior faculty who have shown a commitment to the university’s ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion through their scholarship, teaching, service and engagement. 

“Professor Schulz’s longstanding commitment to community-based participatory research and pursuit of health equity have had significant impact within the field of public health,” said DuBois Bowman, dean of the School of Public Health. “I look forward to following her continued partnerships with communities in Detroit and beyond.” 

In addition to recognizing faculty members’ individual achievements in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion, the professorship also creates a community of faculty members who have a set of overlapping scholarly, pedagogical and engagement interests aimed at developing new collaborations and ideas.

Schulz will maintain this appointment for five years. She will also receive special faculty fellow status at the National Center for Institutional Diversity and spend at least one semester as a faculty fellow-in-residence.

“It is an incredible honor to have been nominated for the University Diversity and Social Transformation Fellowship,” said Shulz. “The disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the police violence that have unfolded over the summer add urgency to our efforts to understand and address systemic inequities. I am both energized and humbled by this opportunity to work with this community of scholars, as well as longstanding partners outside of academia who are committed to social transformation and equity.” 

Schulz’s research focuses on social factors that contribute to health with a particular focus on social and physical environmental factors and their effects on health, health equity and urban health. She works with partners in Detroit to understand and address factors that contribute to excess risk of cardiovascular disease, conduct health impact assessments of proposed policies, and develop public health action plans to reduce air pollution and promote health in Detroit and the surrounding area. She is also associate director of the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health (CRECH) at the School of Public Health and has served as Rackham Faculty Ally for Diversity for the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education since 2011.

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