Newly Appointed Ph.D. Graduate Kemba Noel-London Explores the Organizational and Policy Level Influences on Physical Activity Disparities
06/08/2021
Kemba Noel-London is exploring disparities in sport and physical activity opportunities and the relationship between sport and the mental and physical health outcomes of youth who have experienced adverse childhood experiences.
Noel-London, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, will soon earn her Ph.D. in public health from Saint Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice. She also has her Masters of Athletic Training from SLU and has worked with nationally-ranked athletes from various sports.
As a health equity researcher, Noel-London’s interest lies in the organizational and policy level influences on physical activity disparities and the organizational structures that facilitate or impede youth access to healthcare.
Her work in the community and through youth sports and sports medicine led her to explore the use of spatial analysis to examine how the influence of neighborhoods and location are influencing health disparities in youth from predominantly low-income minority communities.
Noel-London studies the disparities in physical activity levels, opportunities to play and be active in interscholastic sport opportunities, and access to healthcare that may be driven by system-level policies and long-standing inequalities in education.
She recognized a need for change within sports medicine in Trinidad and Tobago. The change, she believes, would allow for visible improvement in national athlete health and performance outcomes.
In order to be part of the conversation, she recognized that understanding facets of public health and health care delivery would be key in aiding evaluation and development policies that could generate change.
While at SLU, Noel-London has worked as an adjunct instructor, graduate assistant, teaching assistant and instructor in both the Departments of Health Management and Policy and the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, and has also served as the athletic trainer at Roosevelt High school.
She worked as the AT in the Mercy Clinic, a school-based health center, as part of a collaboration supported by the Department of Athletic Training and also serves currently on the advisory board for Clyde C. Miller High School's health professions program.
College for Public Health and Social Justice
The Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice is the only academic unit of its kind, studying social, environmental and physical influences that together determine the health and well-being of people and communities. It also is the only accredited school or college of public health among nearly 250 Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States.
Guided by a mission of social justice and focus on finding innovative and collaborative solutions for complex health problems, the College offers nationally recognized programs in public health, social work, health administration, applied behavior analysis, and criminology and criminal justice.