About: Antronette Yancey, MD, MPH
Website: http://www.ph.ucla.edu/cehd
Profile: Antronette K. (Toni) Yancey, M.D., M.P.H. is currently a professor in the Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, and Co-Director of its Center to Eliminate Health Disparities. Dr. Yancey’s primary research interests are in chronic disease prevention and adolescent health promotion. She returned to academia full-time in 2001 after five years as city director of Public Health in Richmond, VA and as director of Chronic Disease Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Dr. Yancey has authored 100 scientific publications, including 75 peer-reviewed journal articles. She has generated $20 million in extramural funds, including four National Institutes of Health grants as principal investigator. She serves on the Institute of Medicine Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention and National Physical Activity Plan Steering Committee. She also chairs the Board of Directors of the Oakland, CA-based Public Health Institute. Dr. Yancey is perhaps best known for developing Lift Offs! (Lift those cheeks off the chairs!) or Instant Recess™, enjoyable group “recess” breaks done in any attire on paid time at the workplace, in schools, at church functions, and during the pre-game shows and half times of sporting events. Dr. Yancey completed her undergraduate studies in biochemistry and molecular biology at Northwestern University, her medical degree at Duke, and her preventive medicine residency/MPH at UCLA. She is a basketball enthusiast and poet published in several scientific journals and newspapers. Her book of poetry and art, a collaboration with artist Todd Berrien, An Old Soul with a Young Spirit: Poetry in the era of desegregation recovery, was published in 1997 and sold out of its first printing. Her spoken word music CD with musicians Ciro Hurtado and Kim Jordan, was released in 2001 (www.toniyancey.com/poetry). Since 2006, Dr. Yancey has been a public health commentator for the National Public Radio affiliate, KPCC (www.kpcc.org/off-ramp). Her second book, Instant Recess: How to Build a Fit Nation for the 21st Century (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA), is scheduled for release in 2010.