Hanaa A. Hamdi, Ph.D., is currently the national Public Health Director at The Trust for Public Land, she directs the development of healthy and equitable communities.

Dr. Hamdi is the former health commissioner for the City of Newark where she oversaw the Departments of Public Health and Human Services, Social & Environmental Services, and was the CEO of the Mary Eliza Mahoney Health Centers, the City’s co-affiliate community-based medical centers.

Prior to her work with the City of Newark, Dr. Hamdi was assistant professor of Family Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and a Senior Research Fellow at the Rutgers School of Nursing.

With more than two decades of public health research and practice, Dr. Hamdi has dedicated her career to advancing health equity in low-income and communities of color.  She holds a joint PhD in Public Health and Urban Community Design from Rutgers University and New Jersey Institute of Technology. Her research examines the impact of social and structural inequities on health. More specifically, her work focuses on the interaction of community design, neighborhood features and population health outcomes.

Hanaa is a native Eritrean. She grew up in San Diego, California and currently lives in New Jersey.