Eugenia (Gina) South is the Associate Vice President for Health Justice and Inaugural Director of the Penn Medicine Center for Health Justice. She is also the Faculty Director for the Penn Urban Health Lab.
Dr. South’s research agenda is focused on dismantling structural racism and promoting environmental and economic justice. Her lab develops and tests individual and neighborhood level interventions to improve health and wellbeing for residents in Black and other minoritized communities. She has studied a variety of place-based interventions including vacant lot greening, abandoned house remediation, tree planting and structural repairs to homes.
Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her work has been published in JAMA, PNAS, and AJPH, as well as been covered by national and international media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and Time Magazine.