Fernando A Ospina, PhD

Biosketch

Fernando Ospina, PhD, received his undergraduate degree at the University of Florida and an MA in Counseling Psychology and in Conflict Resolution at the University of Denver. He completed his PhD in Sociology at the Western Michigan University, serving as a Thurgood Marshall Fellow and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Research Fellow. Since 2023 he has led the Population Health Research Team, serving as the evaluator for Health Babies Health Start, conducting community health needs assessments for several Michigan hospitals, and serving as the Data Backbone lead for Cradle Kalamazoo, a collective impact effort to reduce racial disparities in infant mortality and maternal health. Since 2014 all of Dr. Ospina’s work has been deeply community-engaged in local and statewide networks, serving as a qualitative research analyst on the Population Health Research Team and as an evaluator and consultant facilitating organizational change and data use in multiple local and statewide organizations. As an educator, he co-leads Discovery and Engagement, exposing first year medical students to community-engaged population health research and leads Evidence Based Medicine in Core Clerkships. His research specializes in the long-term embedding and durability of equity in organizations and the utilization of data for organizational change. A commitment to Health Equity serves as the driving force behind all of Dr. Ospina’s research and teaching.