About Our Company
Managing Partner: Lauri Andress, MPH, J.D., Ph.DDr. Andress has dedicated her career as a public health researcher and policy analyst to public service where her expertise lies in linking scholarly work to social issues. Her goal is to create a better society by connecting research and academic learning to community concerns and eventually public considerations.
As a developer of the “health equity readiness” concept, Dr. Andress is a leading advisor to several government agencies on policies, programs, and competencies related to social and health inequities. The Centers for Health Equity in Wisconsin and Louisville, Kentucky began under Dr. Andress' guidance.
Dr. Andress is the Managing Partner for Andress & Associates, LLC, a U.S. advisory firm on health inequities serving local and state health departments. She holds a Ph.D. in Community Health Science (University of Texas), a Masters of Public Health (University of Texas), a law degree and the Vinson & Elkins Public Interest Fellowship. (South Texas College of Law).
For more than twenty years, she has provided community, media, and government relations to various non-profit organizations, government agencies, and elected officials. Dr. Andress has worked for one of the leading U.S. experts on population health, Dr. Alvin Tarlov, at the Texas Program for Society and Health at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University. As the Director of Operations & Strategic Political Action, her work focused on research and policy initiatives related to the social determinants of health.
Dr. Andress lectures on the public policy process, principles of public administration, American Political Systems, program evaluation, public health laws and policies, social determinants of health, policy framing, and community organizing. Her research interests have included: building and measuring civic capacity; the study of state-level policies on the organization of public health services; the affects of power on marginalized communities; a comparison and analysis of social capital and community building as levers for improved population health; framing public health policies and agenda setting for the social determinants of health in the United Sates and Britain.
During her career, she has served as public information officer for Houston’s Department of Health and Human Services; a legislative aide and press secretary in the United States House of Representatives (Texas 18th Congressional District); special projects coordinator for State District 25, Texas House of Representatives; and, Chief of Staff in Houston’s City Council-At-large Position 1. In 1997 she served as executive director for a non-profit community-based organization whose mission was to raise awareness about and advocate for the needs of a marginalized community in Galveston, Texas.
Dr. Andress has worked as a journalist and copy editor for several Texas newspapers. She served on the editorial board of a local Texas paper contributing to policy discussions and writing several editorials for the news paper.