Benjamin Perkins
Professional Affiliation: Vice President of Health Strategies for the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association
Background and Community Activities:
An avid social-justice practitioner, intellectual, and creative thinker, Benjamin Perkins is currently the Vice President of Health Strategies for the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. He has worked in the public health field for two decades, first specializing in disease prevention and research education to communities vulnerable to HIV infection, where he held numerous leadership roles, from community advisory board chair, to founding director of a CDC-funded HIV-prevention and wellness center, to project director for an NIH-funded HIV-prevention feasibility study. In 2014, he shifted focus to health disparities and inequities in cardiovascular disease and stroke rates among communities of color and other underserved populations.
Benjamin received his Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School in 2000 and is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and serves a wonderfully multicultural congregation in the Boston area. In addition to his education at Harvard Divinity School, Benjamin received his Master of Arts degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University in Los Angeles and his Bachelor of Arts in geography from the University of California at Los Angeles. His interests include running, reading theology, creative writing, and engaging in health equity/social justice work as spiritual practice.