Lu Ann Aday

Lu Ann Aday distinguished herself in the area of public health and medicine.

Lu Ann Aday

She is currently a distinguished professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health-Houston, located in the world-renowned Texas Medical Center.

Born and raised in Waxahachie, Texas, Aday received her bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Texas Tech University and then came to West Lafayette for her master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from Purdue.

Dr. Aday was formerly associate director for research at the Center for Health Administration Studies at the University of Chicago. Her principal research interests have focused on indicators and correlates of health services utilization and access.

As a member of a faculty with 150 positions, Dr. Aday is part of one of the largest schools of public health in the United States. Since its creation in 1969, the University of Texas School of Public Health has graduated more than 3,000 professionals. It is ranked nationally among the top 10 schools of public health and No. 1 in the nation for its doctoral programs in health education.

She has conducted major national and community surveys and evaluations of national demonstrations and published extensively in this area, including 14 books dealing with conceptual or empirical aspects of research on access to health and health care for vulnerable populations.

Her most recent books – all of which have been published in second editions or forthcoming in third editions – include At Risk in America: The Health and Health Care Needs of Vulnerable Populations in the United States; Designing and Conducting Health Surveys: A Comprehensive Guide; and Evaluating the Healthcare System: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity. She is currently working on a new book entitled Reinventing Public Health: Toward a Healthy (Re)Public.

Dr. Aday has received the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Excellence in Scholarship Award, the John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award, and the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching.

She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.