Jennifer Prah Named Director of the Ortner Center on Violence and Abuse at the University of Pennsylvania

Jennifer J. Prah, Amartya Sen Professor of Health Equity, Economics and Policy in the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named the director of the Ortner Center on Violence and Abuse at the university. The Ortner Center on Violence & Abuse is a collaborative effort of faculty and students at the University of Pennsylvania who research issues related to violence, primarily violence against women and girls.

In addition to her professorship at the School of Social Policy and Practice, Dr. Prah is also a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the founder and director of the Health Equity and Policy Lab (HEPL), a global research lab that employs a multi-level and mixed-methods approach to conduct quantitative and qualitative research on the equity and efficiency of health and public policies.

“I am deeply honored to be the next director of the Ortner Center,” Said Professor Prah. “I look forward to collaborating with faculty, staff, and students to build on the critical mission and remarkable legacy of the Ortner Center to investigate the correlates and consequences of violence, abuse, and control against women and girls as well as the conditions for women and girls to be healthy and flourish.”

Professor Prah received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned master’s degrees from Oxford University in England, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Yale University. Professor Prah earned a doctoral degree at Harvard University.