Ruth Thomas-Squance, PhD, MPH, is Co-Executive Director at the Build Healthy Places Network a national center positioning cross-sector partnerships from community development, public health and healthcare sectors to lead and leverage community-centered investments across the country to address the drivers of health and advance racial equity.
Dr. Thomas-Squance has a passion for health equity strategy, bringing an interdisciplinary lens and systems change mindset to the promotion of health and social equity. Her health equity journey has taken her from a successful career in biomedical research to management in the non-profit and public sectors. She brings 18 years of experience working in multi-sector collaborations with diverse partners. She served as founding executive director of a Bay Area non-profit providing training in emotional intelligence skills development to low income and minority populations. Before joining the Network she worked at San Francisco Department of Public Health in Whole Person Care, a Medi-Cal waiver program strategizing cross-sector approaches to improve outcomes for adults experiencing homelessness and high users of urgent emergent healthcare services.
Dr. Thomas-Squance is currently Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the US Green Building Council. She also serves on the Multi-Sector Partner Group of the Center for Health Justice at the American Association of Medical Colleges and the American Public Health Association’s Alliance for Disease Prevention and Response.
Dr. Thomas-Squance earned her doctorate from Imperial College, London, UK and her Master’s in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco.