Joseph D. Tucker

Joseph D. Tucker is a Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Professor of Global Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He serves as Director of the UNC Project-China, and as a Working Group Member of TDR Global. His work bridges infectious disease medicine and social innovation, with a focus on developing novel approaches to improve global health outcomes through community engagement and open collaboration.

Tucker received his B.A. from Swarthmore College (2000), MD from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2004), completed Internal Medicine training at University of California San Francisco, Infectious Diseases fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women's Hospital, earned an A.M. in Regional Studies East Asia from Harvard University (2010), and completed his PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2014) under supervision of Professors Rosanna Peeling and Heidi Larson.

As an infectious diseases physician and social scientist, Dr. Tucker specializes in crowdsourcing and participatory research methods. His work focuses on applying open innovation approaches to address challenges in HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis prevention and treatment, with particular emphasis on China and Nigeria. He has pioneered the adaptation of hackathons to design health interventions (designathons) and developed pay-it-forward approaches to increase health service utilization. His research on syphilis burden in China helped inform China's national syphilis screening program. Dr. Tucker has led over 100 crowdsourcing open calls to improve health, with finalist ideas informing regional, national, and global guidelines.

Dr. Tucker's recent publication portfolio demonstrates a consistent focus on applying innovative methodologies like crowdsourcing and pay-it-forward models to improve health service delivery across diverse contexts. His work spans multiple continents (particularly China, Nigeria, and the United States) and addresses key health challenges including HIV prevention, hepatitis vaccination, cervical cancer screening, and sexual health services. A notable trend is the increasing application of community engagement strategies to make health interventions more inclusive, particularly for marginalized populations such as older adults, people with disabilities, and sexual minorities.

• Crowdsourcing research identified by TDR in 2017 as one of the top global innovations
• Pay-it-forward research recognized at the 2018 World Health Summit
• Pay-it-forward research featured at the 2019 UNAIDS Health Innovation Exchange
• Pay-it-forward research awarded at the 2020 World Health Organization Re-Boot Challenge
• Mid-career Award from the National Institutes of Health for HIV research mentorship
• 1st place in WHO Re-Boot Health Challenge

Dr. Tucker has secured significant research funding including NIH grants for "Enhancing Partner Services Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Living With HIV" and "Mentoring Multidisciplinary Global HIV Patient-Oriented Research." He has contributed to six World Health Organization guidelines or guidance documents, including leading the development of a TDR/SIHI/SESH Practical Guide on Crowdsourcing in Health and Health Research. He has served on multiple WHO committees in locations including Kampala, Nairobi, Geneva, Jakarta, New Delhi, and Tokyo.

Dr. Tucker founded and leads the SESH (Social Engagement to Spur Health) initiative, a partnership joining individuals from the Southern Medical University Dermatology Hospital, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the University of North Carolina-Project China. SESH serves as the Social Innovation in Health Initiative Hub for China and has organized numerous crowdsourcing open calls to develop public health interventions and community engagement practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped organize the Carolina Collective, a crowdsourcing open call to inform UNC Chapel Hill's fall semester planning. His team has developed multiple WHO-TDR guides on social innovation, crowdsourcing, public engagement, research mentorship, and participatory health research.