Mona Arora PhD, MsPH

Dr. Mona Arora is an Assistant Research Professor at the College of Public Health. She obtained her Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) degree in Tropical Medicine from the Tulane University School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene and has a doctorate degree in Geography from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Arora currently leads the ADHS-CDC COVID Disparities Initiative at the Arizona Center for Rural Health aimed at mobilizing partnerships to advance health equity & address social determinants of health-related to COVID-19 health disparities among higher risk and underserved populations. In addition, she has been an active member of the University’s COVID-19 response efforts and continues to support pandemic response and recovery planning.

Her research focuses on building the public health system’s capacity and capability to address global “wicked problems,” including pandemics, disasters, and climate change. She is a member of a multidisciplinary team of researchers focusing on understanding the pandemic's impacts on non-healthcare frontline worker health and well-being. The health impacts of climate change with a special focus on the usability of science for decision-making and models for translating science to action. Dr. Arora has over ten years of experience in emergency preparedness, workforce development, and community engagement. She served as the Lead Curriculum Developer and Trainer for the Mountain West Preparedness & Emergency Response Learning Center (MWPERLC), a Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) program to build community resilience for disasters. She has worked extensively with rural and tribal communities and partnered with local health departments to facilitate community resilience for public health emergencies, including disease outbreaks such as Ebola and Pandemic Influenza.

She also brings expertise in GIS, program evaluation, survey design, and implementation and recently conducted a national workforce assessment on the public health system’s capacity to protect against the health consequences of climate change. Dr. Arora has served on several national committees, including the Lancet Countdown U.S. Policy Brief Working Group, National Adaptation Forum Program Committee, and the National Association of City and County Health Official’s (NACCHO) Workgroup on Global Climate Change. Dr. Arora currently also serves as the Co-Chair of the University of Arizona Mass Clinic Planning Committee, a subset of the University Campus Incident Response Team, and facilitates the development and implementation of the University’s Mass Dispensing Plan.

Research Interests:

• Climate change action planning & resilience development
• Public health emergency preparedness and response
• Decisions support systems & program evaluation
• Environmental literacy & science communication

Courses Taught:

• EHS 425 (Fall Semesters): A Public Health Lens to Climate Change
• EHS 489/589 (Fall Semesters): Public Health Preparedness
• EHS 525 (Spring Semesters): Global to Local: Environmental Change and Human Health