Episode #436 When Cities Lead On Health, With Edward Johnson, MS
- Laura Hollabaugh
- 34 minutes ago
- 5 min read
On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
What happens when a city loses $1 million per day in food assistance? Columbus found out when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)Â benefits vanished overnight for 180,000 residents. But the city's response reveals something powerful about modern public health leadership: it's not just about emergency response, it's about storytelling, collaboration, and asking the right questions.
An Unconventional Path to Public Health
Edward Johnson didn't plan on a public health career. With a background in philosophy, politics, and economics, his early exposure to health policy at the Ohio State House showed him the passionate, high-stakes nature of the field. That experience, combined with his diverse educational background, became his greatest asset. Today, as Assistant Health Commissioner, he brings a unique lens to Columbus's most pressing health challenges, helping turn down the volume on contentious conversations while amplifying the data and stories that matter.
When Data Becomes Story
Columbus created something different: a life expectancy story map that doesn't just display numbers but tells the community's health narrative across time, neighborhoods, and racial equity. Columbus's Recreation and Parks Department incorporated it into their 10-year strategic plan. Other city departments are asking how they can address chronic disease alongside public health. The community can finally see themselves in the data.
Bold Policy Moves That Work
Sometimes public health means taking controversial stands. Columbus banned all flavored tobacco products, becoming one of the only non-coastal cities to do so. Smoking rates dropped from 36% to 13% in just three years. Edward explains how framing the issue around the city's top two causes of death, heart disease and cancer, helped city council make the tough call.
Crisis Response Across Departments
When the SNAP crisis hit, Columbus mobilized its first multi-department incident command structure. Public health, utilities, recreation and parks, and public safety came together to serve nearly 10,000 individuals. Edward kept a nickel in his pocket as a reminder: for every dollar lost, they could only replace five cents. Building relationships across departments before crisis strikes makes all the difference.
The Future of Public Health Communication
Edward offers a simple but powerful definition of public health: How long do you live and how well do you live those years? It's an approach that invites conversation rather than confusion, curiosity rather than overwhelm. He challenges the field to remember that the plural of stories is not data, and that public health professionals have a responsibility to connect individual experiences with broader patterns.
This conversation is for anyone navigating health equity work, communicating complex data, responding to community crises, or wondering how their unique background might strengthen public health.
About Our Guest
Edward Johnson, MS
Columbus, Ohio’s Assistant Health Commissioner Edward Johnson helps lead the 2024 best health department in the nation of nearly 600 public health professionals across 90+ programs focused on neighborhood-based approaches that address the social determinants of health.
He currently oversees the Environmental Health Division, where over 8,000 restaurants, markets, public pools and spas, body art facilities, campgrounds and tobacco retailers are licensed and inspected. This includes the Addiction Services Division, implementing the Columbus & Franklin County Addiction Plan, currently presiding over multi-year decreases in overdose deaths since 2020. He also leads the Center for Public Health Innovation, which is naming racism as a public health crisis and seeking to increase Columbus's life expectancy by reducing racial health disparities and raising quality of life.
Edward has more than 11 years of combined experience in public policy and public health, having served in staff roles at the Ohio House of Representatives and Columbus City Council. He holds degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Xavier University and International Economics from Valparaiso University.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
Data storytelling drives action.
Columbus created a life expectancy story map, not a dashboard, that tells the community's health story across time, neighborhoods, and racial equity, making complex data accessible and actionable for diverse audiences.
Place and race shape health outcomes dramatically.
Columbus's longest-lived and shortest-lived neighborhoods are separated by 20 years of life expectancy and only 11 miles of distance, with a four-year gap between white and Black residents driven primarily by chronic conditions.
Crisis response requires cross-department collaboration.
When SNAP benefits disappeared, Columbus established its first multi-department incident command structure, bringing together public health, utilities, recreation and parks, and public safety to distribute food assistance.
Flavored tobacco bans work.
After implementing a comprehensive flavored tobacco ban, Columbus reduced its smoking rate from 36% to 13% in three years by addressing heart disease and cancer, the city's top two causes of death.
Diverse backgrounds strengthen public health leadership.
Philosophy, politics, and economics training helps reframe public health challenges, emphasizing that the plural of stories is not data and that storytelling can give meaning to numbers.
Social determinants require getting in the sandbox.
Effective public health work means building relationships across sectors and disciplines, even when you don't get everything you want from every interaction, because the big issues demand collaboration.
Effective communication asks simple questions.
Public health can be explained as: How long do you live and how well do you live those years? Choices in public health and policy can make us healthier, wealthier, and wiser or unfortunately, the opposite.
"If you don't have a health department that's addressing the top two leading causes of death, what do you want us for then? That's where our city council said, 'You're right. This is big. This may be controversial, but we're going to do it.'" - Edward Johnson
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Public Health Consulting To Support You
DrCHHuntley LLC is a public health consulting firm that specializes in epidemiology consulting, supporting large nonprofit organizations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida that serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We also provide nationwide public health consulting and epidemiology consulting support to BIPOC organizations across the United States.