Tanjala Purnell, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular and Clinical Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She holds joint faculty appointments in the Johns Hopkins Departments of Surgery, Health Policy and Management, and Health Behavior and Society. Dr. Purnell is an epidemiologist and health services researcher with over a decade of expertise related to identifying and addressing patient, family, healthcare system, policy, and community factors influencing health and healthcare disparities for adults with cardiometabolic diseases, including kidney disease/failure, hypertension, and diabetes. Her research has also helped to shed light on the dual impact of COVID-19 and systemic racism on healthcare disparities in the US. She has received several national and international research honors and has published findings from her work in leading journals, including JAMA, Health Affairs, American Journal of Transplantation, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, American Journal of Hypertension, and Diabetes Care. She serves in multiple educational leadership roles, where she has facilitated research mentoring opportunities for over 150 scholars; organized novel seminars for over 7,000 academic and community members; and developed health equity research methods courses for over 4,000 learners at Johns Hopkins and other institutions worldwide. She is a four-time recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award from Johns Hopkins University.