Dr. Nesbitt returns to the District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH) from the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW) where she was the Director and leading public health expert in Louisville, Kentucky. 

 

As health Director of LMPHW, Dr. Nesbitt committed to five strategic priorities for Louisville Metro: creating a culture of health and wellness in Metro Louisville; an expanded focus on social determinants of health and health equity; strengthening public-private partnerships; increased connection between public health and clinical medicine; and implementing an outcomes driven approach to program and policy development.  During her tenure at LMPHW, the agency released the first Louisville Metro Health Equity Report; expanded the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Movement to include tobacco prevention and control and chronic disease prevention and management; established the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Leadership Team leading to the successful implementation of the city’s “health in all policies” approach; developed public-private partnerships to implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Community Transformation Grant program; and worked with all local healthcare systems to complete their community health needs assessments and community health improvement plans.  Dr. Nesbitt also served as co-chair of the Mayor’s Violence Prevention Work Group.

 

Prior to her role in Louisville, Dr. Nesbitt served separate terms as Senior Deputy Director for the Community Health Administration and Senior Deputy Director for the Center for Policy, Planning, and Evaluation at DOH. Prior to joining DOH, Dr. Nesbitt was Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Senior Coordinator for Health Disparities and Policy Research Initiatives in the Office of Policy & Planning at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Her responsibilities encompassed providing primary care services to patients in inner-city Baltimore including adolescent health services, preventive medicine services, and chronic disease management with an emphasis on hypertension and diabetes care. Her academic interests include racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes and health care services, workforce diversity, and improving access to care for the uninsured and underinsured through population health management, policy and health services research.

 

In addition to her professional activities, Dr. Nesbitt is a published author and served as an executive editor of Population Health: Management, Policy, and Technology, First Edition. She was an active member of the Louisville community and served on a number of boards including:  Greater Louisville Medical Society, Kentucky Science Center, American Heart Association of Kentuckiana, Louisville Sports Commission, The Healing Place, and Health Enterprise Network.  Dr. Nesbitt was also appointed by Governor Steve Beshear to a four year term as a member of Kentucky’s Early Childhood Advisory Council.  She was also involved regionally in her role as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ Health Industry Council and the National Children’s Study Central Region Community Engagement Advisory Committee. Dr. Nesbitt served nationally as a member of the Commonwealth Fund Health Care Delivery System Reform Program National Advisory Group.  She was an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated’s Louisville Alumnae Chapter.

 

Dr. Nesbitt received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, her medical degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health in Health Care Management and Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Nesbitt completed an internship in family medicine at the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Nesbitt completed her family medicine residency in the University of Maryland’s Department of Family Medicine where she served as chief resident. Dr. Nesbitt completed her fellowship training with the Commonwealth Fund Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.