Shelly Choo ’11 (H.S., general preventive medicine and public health, 2013–15; M.P.H., ’14) knows that public health is a team sport. “No one entity can solve the big issues by themselves,” she says. “We need everyone at the table.” 

In her roles with the Baltimore City Health Department and now as director of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau for the Maryland Department of Health, she’s lived by that philosophy.

Take B’More for Healthy Babies, a project she served during her tenure as senior medical adviser for the city; in 2017, that initiative reduced infant mortality to Baltimore’s second lowest rate ever. Or the rapid ramp-up in the number of community health workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic in the city. Or helping Baltimore City’s hospitals develop best practices and policies to address opioid overdoses. 

Job One for Choo right now at the Maryland Department of Health, which she joined in 2020, is implementing the Women’s Health Action Plan, which seeks to expand reproductive health services, protect reproductive rights and advance birth equity for all Marylanders. The six-point plan, she notes, uses evidence-based tactics like home visiting programs and communal prenatal care.

Across every point of the plan, Choo’s team focuses on partnership. They work with local schools to create primary care within the school setting, with nonprofits like Upstream to provide contraceptive care, and with the University of Maryland on a program that assists providers in treating birthing people with substance abuse disorders. 

Choo’s passion for public health can be traced to her family’s emigration from South Korea when she was just an infant. For many years after arriving in the U.S., they lived without health insurance, and going to the doctor was a luxury.

“That’s why I believe that health care is for everyone. Good health should always be within reach, and health care should work for all families,” says Choo, recipient of the 2024 Community Champion Award from the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association. 

“I want every family in Maryland to have a sense of health and well-being,” says Choo.