Kevin A. Henry

Kevin A. Henry

  • College of Liberal Arts

    Geography, Environment and Urban Studies

    Professor and Department Chair

    Concentrations
    • Environmental Studies
    • Geographic Information Systems

    Undergraduate Chair

    Affiliated Faculty

    Programs
    • Global Studies
    • Center for Sustainable Communities
Office Location

Gladfelter Hall, 313B

Expertise

Health Geography, GIS, Epidemiology, Life Course, Health Disparities, Disease Mapping, Spatial Statistics

Biography

I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University and a member of Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control program. I am a medical geographer, and my research and teaching focus on the intersection between geography, public health and epidemiology. My research focuses on describing and understanding place-based and geographic disparities in health and disease, with a specific emphasis on applied geographic methods and the role geographic factors play on cancer outcomes and prevention. I am especially interested in the interactions between socioeconomic, demographic and neighborhood environmental factors that influence human health and disease and how we can measure these factors to better understand various health outcomes. Much of the innovation in my work has been through using novel geographic methods and creating new national data sets to answer questions that are directly relevant to understanding and reducing health disparities in cancer.

 In the past several years, I have both led and worked with interdisciplinary teams of researchers on several high-impact projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen. Some of the findings from these studies have been published in prominent journals, and some garnered national attention and have been highlighted by the NCI and major media outlets, including the New York Times, CBS, the Guardian and Reuters.

I received a B.S. in Geography from Salisbury University and an M.A. in Geography from Towson University. At McGill University, I earned my Ph.D. in Geography and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in epidemiology before spending several years as a research scientist at the New Jersey Department of Health and as associate director of the New Jersey State Cancer Registry.  Prior to joining the faculty at Temple University, I served on the faculty at the University of Utah (Department of Geography) and at the Rutgers University School of Public Health (Department of Epidemiology).

Website

Selected Publications

  • Wiese D*, Escalante AA, Murphy H, Henry KA, Gutierrez-Velez VH (2019) Integrating environmental and neighborhood factors in MaxEnt modeling to predict species distributions: A case study of Aedes albopictus in southeastern Pennsylvania. PLOS ONE 14(10): e0223821. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223821
  • Pinto N, Henry KA, Wei G, Sheng X, Greene T, Puchalski M, Byrne J, Kinney A.  Barriers to Sonographer Screening for Fetal Heart Defects: A National Survey’. Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy. 2019 Aug 15:1-10. doi: 10.1159/000501430. [Epub ahead of print]
  • Swiecki-Sikora A*, Henry KA, Kepka D. HPV Vaccination Coverage Among U.S. Teens Across the Rural-Urban Continuum. J Rural Health. 2019 Jan 31. doi: 10.1111/jrh.12353. [Epub ahead of print].
  • Li K, Wen M, Henry KA: Ethnic density, immigrant enclaves, and Latino health risks: A propensity score matching approach. Soc Sci Med 2017, 189:44-52.
  • Henry KA, Swiecki-Sikora AL, Stroup AM, Warner EL, Kepka D: Area-based socioeconomic factors and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among teen boys in the United States. BMC Public Health 2017, 18(1):19.
  • Stroup AM, Herget KA, Hanson HA, Reed DL, Butler JT, Henry KA, Harrell CJ, Sweeney C, Smith KR: Baby Boomers and Birth Certificates: Early-Life Socioeconomic Status and Cancer Risk in Adulthood. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017, 26(1):75-84.
  • Schootman M, Gomez SL, Henry KA, Paskett ED, Ellison GL, Oh A, Taplin SH, Tatalovich Z, Berrigan DA: Geospatial Approaches to Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017, 26(4):472-475.
  • Roche LM, Niu X, Stroup AM, Henry KA: Disparities in Female Breast Cancer Stage at Diagnosis in New Jersey: A Spatial-Temporal Analysis. J Public Health Manag Pract 2017, 23(5):477-486.
  • Boscoe FP, Henry KA, Johnson CJ, Sherman RL. The relationship between cancer incidence, stage, and poverty in the United States. International Journal of Cancer. 2016.
  • Henry KA, Warner EL, Stroup AM,  Kepka D. Geographic Factors and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Initiation among Adolescent Girls in the United States. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 2015.
  • Henry KA, Fagliano J, Jordan HM, Rechtman L, Kaye WE. Geographic Variation of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Incidence in New Jersey, 2009-2011. American journal of epidemiology. 2015.
  • Roche LM, Niu X, Henry KA. Invasive Cervical Cancer Incidence Disparities in New Jersey – a Spatial Analysis in a High Incidence State. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved,  2015.
  • Kohler BA,  Sherman R, Howlader N, Jemal A, Ryerson B, Henry KA, Boscoe FP, Cronin KA,  Lake A, Noone AM, Henley SJ,  Eheman CR,  Anderson RN, Penberthy L. Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2011. Featuring Incidence of Breast Cancer Subtypes by Race/Ethnicity, Poverty, and State. Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI), 2015 107 (6): doi: 10.1093/jnci/djv048. PMID: 25825511

Courses Taught

  • Fundamentals of GIS
  • Health and Medical Geography
  • GIS for Public Health and Epidemiology
  • Spatial Epidemiology
  • Human Geography
  • Environmental GIS