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  5. Julie Jacobson Vann

Julie Jacobson Vann, PhD, MS, RN

Professor and Planetary Health Director

919.843.8585
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Nursing
Campus Box #7460
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460

Dr. Jacobson Vann is a Clinical Professor and serves as the inaugural Planetary Health Director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Nursing. She also serves as a member of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, Carolina Sustainability Council, Chancellor’s Building and Grounds Committee, on the Board of Carolina Advocates for Climate Health and Equity, and as a member of the Southern Village Sustainability Committee. In fall 2024, Dr. Jacobson Vann was recognized for teaching and advocacy related to public health and planetary health by receiving the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Nursing Section’s Lillian Wald Service Award. This award “honors agencies, individuals, organizations, or media for depicting exemplary public health nursing, especially through legislative, professional, or public advocacy.”

Dr. Jacobson Vann has 48 years of experience in health services that spans research and evaluation, academic teaching, health services and managed care administration, and delivery of public health and patient care services. She is passionate about health promotion, disease prevention, and access to health services, and is a dedicated advocate for planetary health and greening of health care. She teaches courses focused on health care policy, health care finance, health economics, and managing the health services workforce. She also regularly presents locally, nationally, and internationally on planetary health, greening of health care, plastics, and epidemiology. Her recent work has focused on educating nursing students on developing and leading nursing green teams, advocating to develop and pass a law in North Carolina that bans intravenous bags and tubing made with di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and other related toxic ortho-phthalate plasticizers from use in health care delivery, greening school of nursing simulation labs, and engaging students and other faculty in planetary health initiatives.

She currently serves as Co-Principal Investigator on a four-year Utforsk grant, in partnership with colleagues at UNC-CH and four campuses of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). This project focuses on addressing the global need to build and sustain a qualified, robust, and stable health care workforce, especially in nursing, by preparing nurses and other health professionals to effectively lead and manage the workforce, promote population health, and address current and future health concerns. In this project, we are focusing on health care sustainability with respect to human resources and planetary health. Dr. Jacobson Vann is leading research and dissemination for the Utforsk project, including a needs assessment using qualitative methods. She is also leading the development of a collaborative planetary health hybrid course with opportunities for student exchanges between Norway and NC.

During 2026-2027, Dr. Jacobson Vann is serving as the Principal Investigator of a Galápagos Seed Grant, sponsored by the UNC-Chapel Hill, Center for Galápagos Studies. Her project, “Assessing the perceived health risks, needs, solutions, and preparedness of Galápagos residents related to planetary health,” is a qualitative study involving conducting in-depth interviews and focus groups of residents of the Galápagos to identify their perceptions of pollution. She plans to work collaboratively with Galápagos residents on follow-up initiatives that aim to address several identified pollution concerns.

She has conducted decades of research focused on strategies to increase vaccination rates, directed evaluations of chronic disease management and healthy weight initiatives for a Medicaid program, and evaluated national demonstration programs for a health policy contract research firm.

Dr. Jacobson Vann has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master’s in Business Administration, with a focus on Health Care Management, and a PhD in Health Care Policy and Administration with a minor in Epidemiology.

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AHEC-SON FACULTY

Dr. Jacobson Vann is an Associate Professor at UNC Chapel Hill in the School of Nursing.  She is passionate about health promotion and disease prevention, environmental health, and greening of health care. She has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Masters degree in Business with a focus on Health Care Management, and a PhD in Health Care Policy and Administration with a minor in Epidemiology.  Dr. Jacobson Vann has 45 years of health services experience that spans research and evaluation, academic teaching, health services and managed care administration, and delivery of public health and patient care services. Her primary research focuses on conducting Cochrane Collaboration systematic reviews focused on strategies to increase vaccination rates. She recently collaborated with a team of scientists with Cochrane South Africa and the South African Research Council on another vaccination-related Cochrane Collaboration systematic literature review. In the School of Nursing, she primarily teaches courses focused on health care policy and leadership, health care financing, economics of health systems, human resource management, public health nursing, and evidence-based practice. She engaged in planning, managing and directing health services research projects for more than 20 years. This experience includes evaluating outcomes, health care costs, and health services utilization associated with Medicaid demonstration program interventions or initiatives, such as chronic disease self-management initiatives, community-based care management services, healthy weight interventions, and prior authorization guidelines for high-cost prescription drugs. She has conducted contract research, evaluation, and technical service projects for a health policy research firm in Washington D.C. on national projects funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Disability Employment Policy within the U.S. Department of Labor, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 

Available for presentations: I am happy to talk about any of the topics listed above, and can develop more specialized programs within any of these categories: 

  • Epidemiology: epidemiological models; epidemiologic study designs; measures of frequency and measures of association; related topics 
  • Introduction to greening of health care 
  • Health policy advocacy: Developing an advocacy plan and message 
  • Introduction to conducting a program evaluation with cost analysis 

 

Specialties