Board of Directors

John A. Rich, M.D., MPH

Dr. John A. Rich is the director of the RUSH BMO Institute for Health Equity, a part of the Rush University System for Health. The RUSH BMO Institute coordinates health equity programs across the University System for Health and within its diverse communities.

Prior to his appointment at RUSH, Dr. Rich was a professor and former Chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy at the Drexel Dornsife University School of Public Health. He was also the Co-Director of the Drexel Center for Nonviolence and Justice, a multidisciplinary effort to address violence and trauma to improve physical and mental health. Dr. Rich’s work has focused on issues of urban violence and trauma and health disparities, particularly as they affect the health of men of color. Dr. Rich is also an expert in qualitative research methods and narrative analysis. In 2006, Dr. Rich was granted a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. In awarding this distinction, the Foundation cited his work to design “new models of healthcare that stretch across the boundaries of public health, education, social service, and justice systems to engage young men in caring for themselves and their peers.”

Prior to joining Drexel University, Dr. Rich served as the Medical Director of the Boston Public Health Commission where he led the city’s initiatives on Men’s Health, Cancer, Cardiovascular Health and Health Disparities. As a primary care doctor at Boston Medical Center, he created the Young Men’s Health Clinic and initiated the Boston HealthCREW, a program to train inner city young men as peer health educators. His book about urban violence titled Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009) has drawn critical acclaim.

Dr. Rich earned his AB degree in English from Dartmouth College, his MD from Duke University School of Medicine, and his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his internship and residency in primary care internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and a fellowship in general internal medicine at the Harvard Medical School. In 2009, Dr. Rich was elected to the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.