Health Equity Champion

Sadé Richardson, DSW, MPH, LMSW-Macro is the Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Public Health Practice at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. In this role, Richardson oversees the Public Health Action Support Team (PHAST), which deploys graduate students to health and non-profit organizations globally to assist with various public health projects. She also serves as an adjunct lecturer and develops and maintains relationships with domestic and international community stakeholders to support Public Health in Action Courses, a series of credit-based courses designed to provide Michigan Public Health students with hands-on applied learning through direct involvement in population health research, translation, and development that culminates in a weeklong field experience in Grenada, Texas, and Mississippi.

Dr. Richardson also serves as Director of the University of Michigan Future Public Health Leaders Program (FPHLP), a 10-week residential summer program that brings students from across the country and US territories to campus to explore the field of public health and increase the diversity of the public health workforce. She is a 2013 Lewis Scholars alumna of the program. Prior to her role at Michigan, she worked as an Analyst at Altarum Institute in their Center for Behavioral Health.

In January 2024, Dr. Richardson was appointed to the Washtenaw County Board of Health and has served as the Member-at-large for the National Association of Social Workers Michigan Chapter for the last two years. She is also an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Delta Psi Omega Chapter, where she serves as the Vice President of the Pearls & Ivy Foundation.

Dr. Richardson holds a BA in Public Health and Digital Media Studies from the University of Rochester, an MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education, and an MSW in Management of Human Services from the University of Michigan. She obtained her Doctorate in Social Work as a member of the inaugural cohort at the University of Louisville, where she was awarded a Dean’s Citation Award and received the Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work and Family Science’s 2024 Outstanding Graduate Student Award. She has been recognized for her outstanding contributions to the field of public health and was honored to be included in 2023 Beaumont’s 40 under 40 list for her remarkable achievements.