National Update on COVID-19 from Dr. Julie Morita, of President-Elect Biden’s COVID-19 Task Force
January 12th | 9:30 AM to 10:00 AM
Keynote generously sponsored by AARP Utah
Dr. Morita’s Bio (via Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Julie Morita, MD, is executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), where she oversees all programming, policy, research and communications activities.
As the nation’s largest private philanthropy dedicated solely to improving the nation’s health, RWJF is focused on building a comprehensive Culture of Health that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity to live the healthiest life possible. Knowing many factors, such as clean air and water, access to healthy food, safe housing, secure employment, education, and quality health care, contribute to the well-being of our nation, the Foundation concentrates on advancing health equity by eliminating barriers to health, including discrimination.
Before joining RWJF, Morita helped lead the Chicago Department of Public Health for nearly two decades, first as a medical director, then as chief medical officer. In 2015, she was appointed to the department’s top position, commissioner. In that role, she oversaw the public health needs of 2.7 million residents in the nation’s third largest city.
As commissioner, Morita led the development and implementation of Healthy Chicago 2.0, a four-year health improvement plan focused on achieving health equity by addressing the conditions in which people live, learn, work and play. The plan was based on RWJF’s Culture of Health framework. As medical director, Morita’s top priority was reducing disparities in immunization coverage levels among children and adults in Chicago. She implemented systems to identify communities with the lowest rates of immunization and to provide families in those areas with information about, and access to, critical vaccines. Additionally, Morita led several policy initiatives to reduce tobacco usage among teens, including raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21.
She has served on many state, local, and national health committees, including the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Community Based Solutions to Promote Health Equity in the United States. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases Board of Directors.
Morita began her medical career as a pediatrician in Tucson, Ariz., before moving into public health as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (CDC).
Influenced deeply by her own family history, Morita has been a lifelong advocate of equity issues. As children, both of her parents, Mototsugu and Betty Morita, were detained in Japanese internment camps during World War II. They and their extended families were uprooted from their homes, communities, and jobs in the states of Washington and Oregon and transferred to a detention camp in Idaho. Having grown up hearing stories about the harsh and unjust treatment her grandparents, parents, and thousands of others endured, Morita has used that knowledge to pursue health equity in every aspect of her work.
Born and raised in Chicago, Morita earned her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Illinois, and her medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical School. She completed her residency at the University of Minnesota.
Morita is married to William Trick, MD, an internist who is director of the Collaborative Research Unit at Cook County Health. They have two young adult children, Megan and Jake.