Jackie Illum

Jackie Illum, MPL, is an urban planner interested in health equity and economic justice. Her work lies at the intersection of planning, policymaking and behavioral neuroscience, with the thought that improving an individual's health outcomes through the built environment will also improve their quality of life and the overall physical and social health of communities. To that end, she believes that providing physical access to health resources is only half of the equation, and that creating quality jobs with true living wages is necessary to provide economic access to better health outcomes. While working at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Jackie realized that the social and built environment have a significant impact on physical and mental health, and that focusing our efforts on prevention rather than curative medicine has the potential to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities, improving the quality of life and cities across America.