Ashley Gripper

Dr. Ashley Gripper serves as Assistant Professor of Racism and Population Health Equity at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health, holding primary appointment in the Department of Community Health and Prevention and secondary appointment in Environmental and Occupational Health through the Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements, and Population Health Equity.

Her academic credentials include:

• MPH from Columbia University (2017)
• PhD in Population Health Sciences from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (defended April 11, 2022)

Dr. Gripper's research investigates Black communities' reclamation of land-based living through transdisciplinary mixed-methods analysis of urban agriculture's impacts on mental health, spirituality, and collective agency. Her work bridges academic scholarship with grassroots food and land justice movements, emphasizing ancestral spirituality and community healing.

As founding organizer of Land Based Jawns, she develops workshops on agriculture and carpentry for Black Philadelphians, while contributing to Soil Generation's development of Philadelphia's inaugural Urban Agriculture Strategic Plan.