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Someone San Diego Should Know: Cheryl Anderson

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Cheryl Anderson is an epidemiologist who studies the connection between what we eat and the prevention of diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease. She is also a gifted leader, and as a professor and interim chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health in the School of Medicine at UC San Diego, she is making a difference in health equity and how we think about our health.

At age 16, she was an early graduate and valedictorian of her high school class in South Bay, Fla. Her father, a chemist, encouraged science and public service, but she also loved the arts, played the clarinet and won writing awards, among them the Miami Herald’s Silver Knight Award.

She considered a nearby community college, but two science teachers encouraged her to apply to a top school. She decided on Brown University because it was small, everyone lived on campus, and the open curriculum enabled her to explore her many interests.

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“I’ve always been comfortable with things that aren’t defined, and with periods of change,” she recalled. “At 16, it was hard to know what was going to stick.”

Nonetheless, a phrase her music teacher told her over and over, one she stills hears, helped guide her: “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

A distinguished professor at Brown University became her role model. “You were advised to take something you never thought you’d be interested in,” she said. For her, that class was “Culture in Health,” taught by an anthropologist and epidemiologist who was so charismatic that Anderson decided to follow in her footsteps.

She continued to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a master’s in public health, and then to the University of Washington School of Public Health for her training in epidemiology (a master’s) and nutrition (a doctorate). She married a medical student who also had a master’s in public health. When he accepted a position at the University of Delaware, Anderson set her sights on an academic life where she too could be role model -- first at Penn and then at Johns Hopkins. “It was utopia -- I had no intention to go anywhere else.”

After seven years at Johns Hopkins, a former colleague contacted her about a rare opening at UCSD where a new dean was creating opportunities in the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine. She could see “such energy around public health at UCSD.” She was also drawn to the university because it was non-traditional and entrepreneurial. “It was OK to engage nationally and globally at UCSD.”

She arrived in San Diego in 2012 with her husband and 4-year-old son, and formed lasting friendships within the first two days.

“We all had small children and such a depth of caring – these women are my rock,” she said. At UCSD, she became an associate professor and the director of the Center of Excellence in Health Promotion and Equity. Five years later, she was named the interim chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health.

“I talked with every single person in the department, faculty and staff -- some of them twice -- and developed a two-year plan,” she said. “With shared goals, we have worked to build something special together.”

That something special is now being converted into UCSD’s new School of Public Health.

Anderson continues to work with her Johns Hopkins colleagues and teach because, as in most public health programs, “It is unlikely for our majors to see an African American woman teaching in the classroom in their entire college experience, which is important, so I continue to show up.”

“It is a privilege to do the kind of work that can impact so many people. When public health is working well, people do not notice. However, in public health emergencies like the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic, we can really see how public health efforts can save lives.”

About this series

Someone San Diego Should Know is a weekly column about local people who are interesting and noteworthy because of their experiences, achievements, creativity or credentials.

Ann Hill is an attorney, a consultant for nonprofit organizations and philanthropists, and a community volunteer.

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