Laundette Jones, PhD, MPH, is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) in the Departments of Epidemiology and Public Health & Dept. of Pharmacology and serves as Co-Director of the Program in Health Equity and Population Health. She received her BS in Chemistry from Morgan State University, a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a MPH from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. This unique training and expertise in both the basic biomedical sciences and community and population health guides her transdisciplinary research efforts to address health disparities through understanding the interplay of biological, environmental, and social factors. Using a participatory research approach, she combines the wisdom of both local communities and academic researchers with the goal of sharing and co-generating knowledge to produce comprehensive, context-specific strategies for eliminating health disparities. Passionate about training the next generation, she also creates novel experiential learning activities that foster social wellbeing, belonging, and connectedness for students/trainees. Dr. Jones’ also plays key leadership roles in many programs to promote the professional development of medical and graduate trainees, including serving as Association Director of the Science Training for Advancing Biomedical Research Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (STAR-PREP), Co-Director of the Social Justice Pre-clerkship elective, and serving as the Health Disparities Longitudinal Content Lead for the UMSOM Renaissance Curriculum Committee. Taken together, her passion, innovation, and energy also translates into acts of service both within her Community Association in Baltimore where she resides and at her multicultural church home where she partners to build bridges to the community.