Dr. Helen Margellos-Anast

Helen Margellos-Anast is President of Sinai Urban Health Institute (SUHI), a leading community-engaged health equity research center in Chicago. A dedicated social epidemiologist and health interventionist, she has devoted her career to dismantling health inequities in collaboration with impacted communities. With a focus on developing, researching, and scaling intervention models that center community health workers (CHWs), she has led transformative work in the field. Dr. Margellos-Anast has served as principal investigator (PI) or co‐PI on multiple grants examining the feasibility and effectiveness of CHW models for improving chronic disease management and prevention.  

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Building on this expertise, in 2017, she established CROWD—Center for CHW Research, Outcomes, and Workforce Development—an award-winning CHW training and consulting center which supports organizations in implementing and expanding CHW models to improve care delivery. Dr. Margellos-Anast has been integral to landmark studies on racial and ethnic health disparities in Chicago, using data-driven, community-engaged approaches to spark actionable change. Her leadership is recognized for advancing research and real-world impact.  

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Dr. Margellos-Anast served on the Board of the Medical Home Network ACO from 2023-2024, and currently serves as a member of the Loyola Public Health Programs Steering Committee, a member of the Illinois Hospital Association Health Equity Leaders workgroup, site-lead investigator for CAPriCORN, a multi-PI for the Chicagoland Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL), and as co-chair of the Chicago Public Health Workforce Collaborative.  Dr. Margellos-Anast received her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Minnesota in 2000 and her DrPH in Leadership from the University of Illinois Chicago in 2025.