Driven by an unwavering passion to help people live healthier lives, Margaret Whitley is this year’s recipient of the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health Distinguished Alumni Award. 

After earning a master of public health at UCLA in 2011 and working as a policy analyst for RAND, Margaret started her Ph.D. at the UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health in 2016. Her outstanding academic and research potential was clear from the beginning. She was recognized as a top candidate for the program and received several awards, including a Provost Ph.D. Fellowship from the UC Irvine Graduate Division. 

A brilliant and prolific researcher, she is the author of numerous journal articles, reports and peer-reviewed presentations. Her externally grant-funded projects are too numerous to list. After completing her training as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, Margaret returned to work at RAND as an associate policy researcher. Her current research focuses on occupational health, complementary and integrative health (CIH) and maternal and child health. 

Among her many honors, she was a 2021 recipient of the New Researcher award from the American Public Health Association’s Occupational Health and Safety Section. She has also received the Outstanding Service in Public Health Award from the UC Irvine Program in Public Health for her work with Health Justice Advocates at UC Irvine, a group she co-founded and co-directed. 

Margaret remains actively involved with UC Irvine. In addition to mentoring students, she serves as an annual guest lecturer in a graduate course at Wen Public Health and was invited to join a panel at a career event organized by UC Irvine’s Graduate Division in 2023. In a truly “full-circle” moment, she delivered the keynote address at the 2024 UC Irvine Health Justice Symposium, hosted by Health Justice Advocates, an organization she co-founded as a student.