Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH
About
Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH, is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, where he teaches courses on health and built environment and on health impact assessment. Before coming to Seattle, he served as Team Leader of the Healthy Community Design Initiative in the National Center for Environmental Health at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2023, Dr. Dannenberg was appointed to the City of Seattle Planning Commission for a three-year term.
For the past 20 years, his research and teaching have focused on examining the health aspects of community design, including land use, transportation, urban planning, equity, climate change and other issues related to the built environment. He has a particular interest in the use of a health impact assessment as a tool to inform community planners about the health consequences of their decisions.
Previously, he served as director of CDC's Division of Applied Public Health Training, as Preventive Medicine Residency director and injury prevention epidemiologist on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and as a cardiovascular epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. Dr. Dannenberg is board-certified in preventive medicine (1986-present). He completed a residency in family practice at the Medical University of South Carolina and was board-certified in family practice (1982-1989).
Education
- MD, Stanford University
- MPH, Johns Hopkins University
Affiliations
Mentorship
Available to mentor new Master's students in autumn 2026. Please follow the instructions on the How To Apply page.
DEOHS Students Mentored
Health, Climate, and Energy Co-Benefits of 2020 Residential Solar Panel Mandate in California
Marissa VanRy | MPH | 2021 | View
Use and effectiveness of health impact assessment in the energy and natural resources sector in the United States, 2007–2016
Esi Wusuwa Nkyekyer | MPH | 2018 | View
Evaluation of Employment-Related Health Impact Assessments
Hee Yon Sohng | MPH | 2015 | View
Research
Research Interests:
Public health, including epidemiology and environmental health. Urban design. Land-use planning. Transportation planning. Architecture. Climate change. Equity. Health impact. Autonomous vehicles.
Projects:
- Review of policies to address gentrification and displacement
- Research agenda for transportation and public health
- Ensuring equitable paratransit services for people with disabilities during and after COVID-19 pandemic
- Health impacts of increased solar panel installations in California houses
- Health impacts of managed retreat associated with sea level rise
- Impacts of pandemic on current and future design of the built environment
- Health and equity implications of the introduction of autonomous vehicles
- Review of methods used to conduct community sidewalk inventories
Publications
Selected publications
- Paratransit services for people with disabilities in the Seattle region during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons for recovery planning
- Advancing research in transportation and public health: A selection of twenty project ideas from a U.S. research roadmap
- Moving towards physical activity targets by walking to transit: National Household Transportation Survey, 2001 to 2017
- Managed retreat as a strategy for climate change adaptation in small communities: public health implications
- Architecture for health is not just for healthcare architects
- City planning and population health: a global challenge
- Effectiveness of health impact assessments: a synthesis of data from five impact evaluation reports
- Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Well-Being, Equity, and Sustainability.