Dr. W.W. Sanouri Ursprung is an public health strategist and epidemiologist with over 15 years of experience in policy driven research, high impact program & procurement design, health equity advocacy, rigorous epidemiological study design, data driven strategic planning, biostatistics, management, and regulation development. During her tenure as the Director of the Office of Statistics and Evaluation (OSE) at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), she oversaw all research, evaluation, surveillance, strategic planning, health data communications, and data systems maintenance for the Bureau of Community Health and Prevention, along with managing the 60+ epidemiologists within the bureau. Her division covered all topics in the bureau including tobacco, cancer, violence and injury prevention, primary care access, opioid overdoses, food access, sexual assault, built environment, school wellness, oral health, reproductive health, child fatality review, integrated chronic disease prevention, and more.

During her time at MDPH, Dr. Ursprung pioneered a range of methodologically innovative data projects with a strong health equity lens, from the creation of the first statewide Community Health Workforce Survey, to leading the expansion of MDPHnet (Massachusetts’ EHR distributed network for disease surveillance). She represented the commonwealth on numerous research coalitions, commissions, and advisory boards, such as being one of the original board members of the Conservation Law Fund’s Healthy Neighborhood Study. Dr. Ursprung was also one of the original creators of the ground breaking COVID Community Impact Survey (CCIS), an innovative new approach to gathering timely, granular, intersectional, priority population specific data to inform statewide pandemic responses. In addition to capturing populations and equity topics previously excluded from statewide health data sources, Dr. Ursprung also ensured creation of a robust data dissemination arm for the CCIS including monthly population-specific spotlights and webinars, press releases, a data dashboard with unprecedented granular local and subpopulation specific data, and free technical assistance for under-resourced population health advocates, community based organizations, and local boards of health. The success of these initiatives, bolstered by grant funding secured by Dr. Ursprung, led to the establishment of the Community Health Equity Initiative (CHEI): an ongoing, multi-pronged effort that now includes permanent staff, continuing surveys, community researchers, expanded technical assistance, and inclusion of even more Massachusetts subpopulations. Further details on the successes of the CCIS can be found in the Oct. 2024 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Dr. Ursprung’s public health contributions in Massachusetts were not limited to innovative methods projects, however. She was closely involved in drafting multiple racial justice and root cause centered regulations including the strongest tobacco control laws in the nation and the 2018 overhaul of MA’s Determination of Need regulations. She also conducted the first health equity strategic plan for the Office, established the first health equity analytic requirements for all epidemiologists, designed innovative upstream funding streams and procurements (eg. the Gun Violence Prevention Program, the MassUP investment program, and the design of the MA Root Cause Solutions Exchange), and more. In addition to helping to design and implement these innovative initiatives, Dr. Ursprung also ensured that the research and evaluation efforts in all the content areas she covered adhered to strict standards of epidemiologic rigor and social justice. For example, her team’s rigorous, health equity focused evaluation of Massachusetts’ local flavored tobacco regulations provided the evidence needed to nimbly pass comprehensive tobacco protections for youth and residents of color following the vaping epidemic of 2019.

In addition to leading these innovative data projects and regulations, Dr. Ursprung has also demonstrated a longstanding commitment to equipping community groups with the local data they need to advocate for their own needs and reclaim their own narrative. From collaborating on the conception of data sharing platforms like the Population Health Information Tool (PHIT) and Riskscape, to providing workshops on local health data access to community based organizations, to creating population specific COVID data releases and webinars in partnership with population advocates, Dr. Ursprung has worked tirelessly to get data back to the communities whose stories have been invisible in our data for too long. In her capacity as Director of OSE, Dr Ursprung was also responsible for oversight of all data infrastructure around all bureau health data sets including: the All Payers Claims Database, Massachusetts Acute Hospital Case Mix Database, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey, Youth Health Survey, Weapon Related Injury Surveillance System (WRISS), and CHIA Data Reporting and Visualization System (DRVS).

Alongside overseeing these methodologically innovative projects and dissemination efforts, Dr. Ursprung also has maintained a strong focus on staff development, and transformative organizational leadership. She initiated multiple strategic planning efforts, leading to systems changes that were then adopted department-wide, and her strong staff-centered approach to change-management led to high uptake of new efforts within her team.

Prior to her time at MDPH, Dr. Ursprung researched the onset and progression of nicotine dependence through longitudinal cohort studies, human and rat neuroimaging research, psychometric validation of diagnostic scales, comparison of current addiction standards, and qualitative analyses. Her work has been cited in the Surgeon General’s Report, FDA protocols, and the World Health Organization’s Global Youth Tobacco Survey. The dependence measures she helped to develop while working with Dr. Joseph DiFranza’s research group have been translated into over 13 languages and are now used in national health surveys across the globe. Dr. Ursprung received her PhD in Clinical and Population Health Research from the University of Massachusetts Medical School.