education:
- PhD – Health Promotion and Behavior, University of Georgia
- Postgraduate Certification – Urban Renewal and Health Impact Assessment, Queen Mary University of London
- MS – Nutrition Sciences, Georgia State University
- BS – Biology Pre-Med, Morehouse College
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Luther Brewster’s background is in community development where he has worked both in the private and public sectors. Since beginning his career in 2003, Dr. Brewster has held academic and research positions at the City University of New York and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He served as consultant for the expansion of the 125th Street business improvement district in Harlem, New York and the Arsenal, F.C. Emirates Stadium housing regeneration project in London, England. The focus of Dr. Brewster’s work is on the identification and correction of health risks created by projects, programs, and policies that typically are not viewed as having a relationship to health. He has a consistent track record of implementing grassroots strategies to address community concerns.
In 2005, Dr. Brewster joined Florida International University (FIU) as Founding faculty in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work. In March 2008, he became Founding faculty at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine to lead the development of their community-based initiatives. He was Founding Chief of the Division of Policy, Research and Community Development and the Director of Green Family Foundation NeighborhoodHELP™ (Health Education Learning Program) and the co-Founder of the FIU-Aetna Health Policy Analysis Academy, a joint venture with the Pardee RAND Graduate School to develop healthcare strategies aimed at addressing the social determinants of health.
In July 2010, Dr. Brewster was a recipient of the prestigious Marshall Memorial Fellowship through the German Marshall Fund, which brings together Americans and Europeans to increase understanding and to build transatlantic networks among the political, media, business, and nonprofit communities. He is a member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Review Committee for Thoracic Surgery, and former Chair of Miami Homes for All and board member of Health Foundation of South Florida in Miami, Florida. Dr Brewster also serves on the technical advisory committee for the Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities, an initiative to assess and address the social, economic, and public health impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico region.
Currently, Dr. Brewster serves as the Sr. Executive Dean for Community Health Innovation at Roseman University College of Medicine in Las Vegas, Nevada. In this role he will oversee several community medicine and healthcare delivery initiatives for high risk and medically underserved patient populations across Southern Nevada. The first two initiatives are “Roseman GENESIS”, a home-visitation approach that combines healthcare and social services provided in the home with advanced technology solutions and “EMPOWERED”, a community based approach to addressing the needs of opioid addicted pregnant women and their babies.
service to profession:
- Member, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Review Committee for Thoracic Surgery
- Former Chair, Miami Homes for All
- Board Member, Health Foundation of South Florida
- Member, Technical Advisory Committee, Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities
selected peer-reviewed publications:
- Gonzalo JD, Hammoud MM, Schneider GW. Value Added Roles for Medical Students. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2021 Jul 29. Houseold-centered Service Learning: Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. Schneider GW, Brown DR, Brewster L. p. 71-84.
- Greer Jr, P. J., Brown, D. R., Brewster, L. G., Lage, O. G., Esposito, K. F., Whisenant, E. B., … & Rock, J. A. (2017). Socially Accountable Medical Education: An Innovative Approach at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. Academic medicine: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
- Brewster, L. (2015). Academic Health Centers and Diversity “Readiness”. Southern medical journal, 108 10, 607-9.
- Brown, D. R. and Brewster, L., “The Food Environment is a Complex Social Network,” Social Science & Medicine (2015).
- Rock, J. A., Acuña, J. M., Lozano, J. M., Martinez, I. L., Greer, P. J., Brown, D. R., Brewster, L. and Simpson, J. L. “Impact of an Academic-Community Partnership in Medical Education on Community Health: Evaluation of a Novel Student-Based Home Visitation Program,” Southern Medical Journal 107.4 (2014): 203-211
- Brown, D., Spruill, T., Hernandez, A., Brewster L., Celestin, M., Nierenberg, B., Bonnin, R., Akal, S., Brewster, C., Hammer, M., Singh, S. and Page, B. Cultural Competency Observation Tool. The STFM Resource Library; 2012.
- Brown, D., Celestin, M., Hernández, A., Brewster, L., Spruill, T., Nierenberg, B., Brewster, C., Akal, S. and Page, J. The development of a cultural competency observational tool. Medical Teacher 01/2010; 32(6):536-7.
- Brown, D. R., Hernández, A., Saint-Jean, G., Evans, S., Tafari, I., Brewster, L., Celestin, M. J., Gómez-Estefan, C., Regalado, F., Akal, S., Nierenberg, B., Kauschinger, E. D., Schwartz, R., Page, J. B. and Reaves, J. “Sr. Health Center (JRSHC) Community Rapid Assessment Response and Evaluation (RARE): A participatory action research pilot study of urban health disparities” American Journal of Public Health 98.1 (2008): 28-38.
- Brown, D., Morton, A. Jennings, A., Wallace, L. Hurtado, A., Chugg-Starks, G., Jean, P. and Brewster, L. “The Overtown Cookbook,” in Florida Family Physician (2007).
- Uhley, V., Melendrez, J., Brewster, L., Chapman, A. C. and Kieffer, E. “Healthy Mothers on the Move: A community based primary prevention research project for pregnant and postpartum African American and Latino women in Detroit,” FASEBJ 20 (2006): A1007.