Emily Wang Named 2022 MacArthur Fellow

The Justice Collaboratory is immensely proud of our member Emily Wang, MD, MAS, professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), and public health at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), on being named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

As a medical student, Wang witnessed inequities in health care access while volunteering in a women’s prison in North Carolina and working in a prison in Botswana. During her residency, she co-founded a primary care program for individuals released from incarceration, employing community health workers with prior incarceration to guide individuals through navigating healthcare, and connecting with housing and employment. The program, under the leadership of Dr. Shira Shavit, grew nationally into the Transitions Clinic Network, where Wang remains involved through her research.

At Yale Wang turned to understanding whether something about incarceration itself makes people more prone to worse health outcomes. Her research program focuses on cardiovascular disease, cancer, opioid use disorder, gun violence, and COVID-19. She explains that her research “is centered around the expertise of impacted people not only because it is just, but it also ensures our science is more accurate and solutions oriented.”

In 2020, Wang and her team launched the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice. This collaboration between YSM and Yale Law School works toward community transformation by identifying legal, policy, and practice levers to improve the health of those impacted by mass incarceration.

Congratulations, Emily on this well-deserved award!

Emily Wang, MD, MAS