Dr. Ruth Thomas-Squance, PhD, MPH, is Co-Executive Director at the Build Healthy Places Network a national center positioning cross-sector partnerships from community development, public health and healthcare sectors to lead and leverage community-centered investments across the country to address the drivers of health and advance racial equity.

Dr. Thomas-Squance has a passion for health equity strategy, bringing an interdisciplinary lens and systems change mindset to the promotion of health and social equity. Her health equity journey has taken her from a successful career in biomedical research to management in the non-profit and public sectors. She brings 15 years of experience working in multi-sector collaborations with diverse partners.

She is Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the U.S. Green Building Council. She serves on the Multi-Sector Partner Group of the Center for Health Justice at the American Association of Medical Colleges and the American Public Health Association’s Alliance for Disease Prevention and Response.

Dr. Thomas-Squance earned her doctorate from Imperial College, London, UK and her Master's in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco.