Bonnielin K. Swenor

Dr. Bonnielin Swenor is an epidemiologist and disability health researcher whose work bridges science and policy. She is the inaugural Endowed Professor of Disability Health and Justice at Johns Hopkins University. She holds appointments in the School of Nursing, the Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the Departments of Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Swenor is the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, which uses data-driven approaches to shift the paradigm from ‘living with a disability’ to ‘thriving with a disability.’ Drawing on her lived experience with disability, Dr. Swenor’s work emphasizes participatory research and inclusive practices. Her research focuses on improving the accessibility of data, information, health systems, and research environments, enhancing data equity and disability representation, and advancing the ethical application of emerging technologies such as AI to not exclude or disadvantage disabled people.

She has a track record of translating research into policy. Dr. Swenor co-led the effort that led the NIH to recognize people with disabilities as a health disparity population. She has provided advice and expertise to multiple organizations and agencies, including the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the National Governors Association.

Dr. Swenor has also led efforts to improve disability inclusion in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine) fields. She is a co-chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Multidisciplinary Working Group focused on Disability Inclusion and Anti-Ableism. She chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) workshop series Disrupting Ableism and Advancing STEM and co-chaired a consensus study Workplace Barriers, Solutions, and Policies for STEM and STEM Education Professionals and Students with Disabilities. Dr. Swenor currently serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Disability and Health, an advisor to the World Health Organization Disability Health Equity Initiative, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed research articles, including in leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The Lancet, and her work has been featured in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and TIME magazine