In Memoriam: Bruce Kennedy

Bruce Kennedy, 48, passed away on January 3. Kennedy was a visiting scientist in the HSPH Department of Population and International Health in 2005 and 2006 and an assistant professor in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health from 2000 to 2003.

In an e-mail to the HSPH community, Dean for Academic Affairs James Ware described how Kennedy's research focused on understanding the social determinants of health. He investigated the links between income distribution and health and between access to social and political capital and health.

Prior to becoming an assistant professor at HSPH, Kennedy served as an instructor at the School from 1995 to 2000. Before then, he was a research associate. From 1996 to 1999, Kennedy was the deputy director of the Division of Public Health Practice at the School. He also had served as a member of the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1996 to 1998.

Kennedy served on advisory committees for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, and New Hampshire's Health Services Planning and Review Board.

He co-authored or co-edited several books, including The Health of Nations: Why Inequality Is Harmful to Your Health with HSPH Professor Ichiro Kawachi, and Is Inequality Bad for Our Health? with Kawachi and with HSPH Professor Norman Daniels, who was a professor at Tufts University at the time.

Kennedy earned his Ed.D. in developmental psychology from Harvard in 1994 and his M.Ed. in counseling psychology from Antioch University in 1986. He was graduated from the University of New Hampshire with an A.A. in 1983.

A memorial service was held on Saturday, January 12, at the Friends Meeting House in Cambridge, MA.