Qiana L. Brown, PhD, MSW, MPH

Associate Member, Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research

Assistant Professor, Rutgers University School of Social Work

Dr. Qiana L. Brown is an epidemiologist, clinical and translational scientist, social worker and former US Army nurse. She is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers School of Social Work, where she directs the Substance Use Research, Evaluation, and Maternal and Child Health (SURE MatCH) Group at the School of Social Work’s Center for Prevention Science. From a health equity lens, her research focuses on system-level change to improve maternal and child health, centering on preventing prenatal substance use and examining the role of the built and social environments and health and social policies in shaping substance use and other health outcomes among women, youth and families. Dr. Brown’s peer-reviewed research has been published in top-tier international public health and medical journals, including JAMA. She serves on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research. In 2019, Dr. Brown was named one of the Society for the Study of Addiction’s “Women of Future Influence in Addiction Science.” In 2021, she was elected to the Board of Directors for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Additionally, in 2025, she was appointed to her local Board of Education in New Jersey. Dr. Brown earned her PhD in mental health and drug dependence epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in substance abuse epidemiology at Columbia University. She also founded and directed a non-profit, community-based substance use disorder treatment center, Jane’s House of Inspiration.