Jason Purnell

Dr. Jason Purnell joined the James S. McDonnell Foundation as President and CEO in 2023, following his leadership in community health improvement at BJC HealthCare. There, he developed health equity programs and introduced an anchor institution agenda focused on investments in high-poverty communities of color.

This work built on nearly a decade of scholarship at Washington University’s Brown School, where Purnell served as Assistant Professor (2011–2017) and Associate Professor (2017–present) of Social Work, founding director of Health Equity Works (formerly For the Sake of All), and faculty director of Thriving Communities at the Center for Social Development. He also held faculty affiliations with the Institute for Public Health, the Prevention Research Center, and the Center for Public Health Systems Science. In 2014, he and his collaborators released the seminal “For the Sake of All” report, addressing African American health in St. Louis and inspiring significant policy changes and programmatic innovations. A follow-up report, “Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide,” led to the establishment of an affordable housing trust fund for St. Louis County.

Purnell’s scholarship spans more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and policy reports on the social determinants of health, health equity, and psychological well-being. His work has appeared in journals including JAMA, the Annual Review of Public Health, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and his commentary has been featured in CNN.com, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Boston Review. He was appointed to the 2020 Roundtable on Population Health Improvement of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, where he served until 2025 and was a member of the advisory board for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Fellows program.

Purnell holds a bachelor’s degree in Government and Philosophy from Harvard University, a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from The Ohio State University, and a master’s in public health from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in a National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program.

He has been recognized nationally and locally for his contributions to public health and leadership, including being named an Eisenhower Fellow with travel to Rwanda and Spain (2022), one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Diverse Healthcare Leaders (2021), and the St. Louis American’s Person of the Year (2016).

Purnell is on a leave of absence from the Brown School.

In Brown School News

Jason Purnell to speak at Brown School’s 2026 recognition ceremony
March 30, 2026

Brown School alumnae recognized in St. Louis Magazine’s A-List Awards 
August 26, 2025

Purnell to Lead St. Louis Team Responding to COVID-19
April 13, 2020

Purnell Tapped for National Roundtable on Population Health
February 26, 2020