Ex-Officio Member, Science Board Chair
Apryl R. Brown is the 2021-2023 president of the Michigan Public Health Association (MPHA). She along with other MPHA leaders were selected as 2021 Fellows in the CDC-funded National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health (NAPH) where they explored the counternarratives: social determinants of health from the lens of the Black and Brown communities of Detroit and Flint. Being respected and intrigue by their population health project, Brown and her MPHA colleagues have been the only Cohort team to be invited to serve in a pilot program as year-2 NLAPH Fellows.
Brown is the chair of the APHA Science Board where she serves on the joint policy and scientific session planning committees. She has previously served on the APHA Education (two consecutive terms) and Action Boards, the Governing Council (three terms) representing the Community Health Planning and Policy Development Section, and the 2015-2017 president of the Black Caucus of Health Workers. In the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, she is an itinerant deacon serving as pastor of St. Luke AME Church in Roseville, Michigan and the chairperson of the AME North District Michigan Conference Health Commission overseeing 26 congregations. This endeavor includes her training as a community partner on how to effectively implement congregational holistic health and wellness ministries through the CBPR Partnership Academy founded by the Detroit Urban Research Center (URC). She is an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit Mercy and Wayne County Community College District preparing students to excel in their future careers in public health, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and the health professions. As a past coordinator of the Detroit Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), Dr. Brown oversaw health-related initiatives well as participated in exercises pertaining to public health preparedness and response.
Brown earned her BS in Biological Sciences from Wayne State University, her MD from Ross University School of Medicine, and her MPH from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (SPHTM). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health (FRSPH) and a 2011 Fellow of the Mid-America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute (MARPHLI) hosted by the University of Illinois School of Public Health.
Brown was initiated in the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health through her alma mater Tulane SPHTM. Afterward, she was twice elected as a member-at-large officer on the national Delta Omega Executive Committee where she helped to award public health schools and programs for their innovative academic curriculums.
Brown’s history of excellent service in public health led to her recognition as a 2012 Tulane SPHTM Community Leader in Global Health during the school’s centennial celebration.