Alonzo Plough joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as chief science officer and vice president, Research-Evaluation-Learning in January 2014. He is responsible for aligning all the Foundation’s work with the best evidence from research and practice on improving health equity and incorporating program evaluations into organizational learning. He also oversees the two grantmaking portfolios focused on innovation and emerging issues: Ideas for an Equitable Future and Global Ideas for U.S. solutions.

Dr. Plough has been a national leader in public health practice for over 25 years including the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health where he served as the director of emergency preparedness and response, as the director and health officer for the Seattle and King County Department of Public Health, and as the director of public health for Boston. He started out as an academic researcher and was a professor in graduate programs at Boston University, Tufts, and Harvard. He is currently Clinical Professor of Population Health at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Dr Plough has published an extensive body of peer reviewed research and is the author or editor of 8 books including the most recent Necessary Conversations: Understanding Racism as a Barrier to Achieving Health Equity.