Allison Barlow

Biography

Allison Barlow, PhD, MPH joined the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health in 1991. In April, 2016, she was named Director of the Center.  She also directs all behavioral and mental health promotion for the Center. Her health research and program portfolio focuses on child, adolescent and family health and youth development for reservation-based American Indian communities.  Projects to date have spanned teen parenting outreach and early child development; suicide, depression and substance abuse prevention; diabetes and obesity prevention; and youth entrepreneurship and life skills training. All programs center on training and employing indigenous outreach workers who design, direct and evaluate the interventions for their tribal communities. She also co-founded the NativeVision program in 1997 with the NFL Players Association to promote Native American youth development through the mobilization of professional athletes to participate in camps and afterschool activities promoting education and healthy lifestyles. She also played a key role in the development of the Johns Hopkins public health certificate in American Indian Health for Native scholars and allied health professionals. 

Dr. Barlow’s education includes a PhD from University of Amsterdam (2013); an MPH from Johns Hopkins (1997), an MA pursued through a Rotary International Graduate Scholarship Award from the University of Melbourne, Australia, focused in Aboriginal studies (1990), and a BA from Dartmouth College (1986). She has received the Martin Luther King Community Service/Social Justice Awards from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (2007) and Dartmouth College (2008), and the Indian Health Service Director’s Award in 2013.