Joan Cioffi: A leader in interdisciplinary preventive healthcare

Because I know so many people who are now part of the [CDC] Foundation and those who started it, it’s not just a donation. It’s honoring their life. Their commitment. It’s saying, ‘Look at what you started—I can add to this.’

Throughout her career, Dr. Joan Cioffi leveraged her interdisciplinary background to foster connections between diverse actors in public health. She was an early believer in the value of bridging both laboratory and social sciences and academic and governmental work, allowing her to develop creative responses to some of society’s most pressing public health issues.

A native of New York City, Joan earned her bachelor's degree in pharmacy at St. John’s University in Queens. She then went on to obtain her master’s degree in biology at New York University, but quickly decided that microscopic laboratory science was not for her. She wanted to explore broader issues and practical ways to impact health.

Military service brought her family south, and a move to Atlanta enabled her to begin a PhD in educational psychology at Georgia State University. While searching for dissertation topics, Joan stumbled upon the work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “One day, I just walked into the CDC and roamed around,” she said, recalling a chance meeting with a physician in the Bureau of Health Education who introduced her to the LaLonde Report. This report was one of the earliest works to consider the social determinants of health, or the nonmedical factors influencing health outcomes, and it would later emerge as a keystone in the field of preventive healthcare. “It was a ‘wow’ moment,” Joan said. “I had worked in hospitals and taught nurses prior to that, and suddenly here was this new and interesting concept I wanted to learn more about.”

Once again, Joan followed her curiosity. She built on this groundbreaking report in her dissertation, considering questions such as: “How do you communicate current health-related risks you are taking and their impact later on? Could feedback on your risks when you are younger actually inspire behavioral change?” She was primed for a career at the cutting edge of preventive healthcare.

Putting her interdisciplinary experiences to good use, Joan began work at Emory University Hospital, focusing on education, training, and public relations. She became credentialed in hospital administration and human resources. Fifteen years of these complex and diverse experiences paved the way for her next role as a Public Health Manager and Educator at CDC. There, she focused on the critical collaboration between local public health and academic programs, developing academic health departments and competency-based public health education. Joan was instrumental in expanding the agency’s ability to influence public health workforce development and emergency preparedness.

While at CDC, Joan witnessed the importance of the CDC Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization with the ability to mobilize philanthropic and private-sector resources in support of CDC. Noting the barriers that often exist to creating partnerships, Joan remarked, “The CDC Foundation’s third-party intervention creates an environment conducive to collaboration. It provides a space for many people creatively working together to address public health threats. Often, great ideas emerge and attract support from the private sector.”

These firsthand experiences fueled her desire to support the CDC Foundation, an organization she sees as a catalyst for many innovative public health initiatives that might otherwise languish. Also crediting her commitment to inspiring colleagues at CDC, Joan became a donor over a decade ago. She chooses to make her gifts to the CDC Foundation from her IRA through a qualified charitable distribution, as this provides a convenient way to support the charitable causes she cares most about, while also being pragmatic and taking advantage of tax savings.

Across her extensive career in public health mobilization, Joan has learned that interdisciplinary and interpersonal considerations are necessary to advance the field. “Motivating people towards desired actions requires not just knowing the science behind what is to be done,” she says, “but knowing how to move diverse groups of people in the desired direction—society doesn’t function like one giant organism.” Similarly, as an independent nonprofit that can leverage private-sector support of public health priorities and facilitate unique collaborations, the CDC Foundation is instrumental to advancing the CDC’s public health initiatives. Having watched the Foundation grow since its birth and with a holistic understanding of its work, Joan remains a steadfast financial supporter and strong advocate for the lifesaving public health work of the CDC Foundation.