David Jones’ untimely death in 2021 left a hole in the School of Public Health community, but his presence was very much felt among his family, colleagues, and students who gathered at SPH on Tuesday, December 3 to mark the posthumous release of his book Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda.

The celebration included an online Public Health Conversation, titled “Health Equity Policy, Community, and the Mississippi Delta,” which convened health policy scholars from Mississippi and across the nation to discuss how to achieve health equity in the Mississippi Delta and in other communities throughout the country. Themes of empathy, compassion, and optimism radiate throughout the book as Jones takes a deep dive into the forces that shape inequitable health outcomes in the Delta region.

Jones, who was a beloved assistant professor of health law, policy & management (HLPM) and founding editor-in-chief of Public Health Post at SPH, had already completed the book before his death. The book was finalized by his mother, Debra Bingham, as well as two of his SPH colleagues and friends: Nicole Huberfeld, Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law, and Sarah Gordon, associate professor of HLPM, all of whom attended the Zoom event, as well as a reception that followed in the Talbot lobby on Tuesday afternoon.

“David was emphatic that blaming individuals for poor health choices isn’t the remedy, and his book describes how a community-led, goal-oriented approach to creating health equity policies is needed, and that everyone benefits—everyone benefits—when we ensure that all people can pursue a healthy and fulfilling life,” said Bingham, chief executive officer for the Institute for Perinatal Quality Improvement, during the Zoom call. “…He reminds us that small steps, ripples of hope, can save lives and improve health. May each of us create our own ripples of hope.”

Timothy Callaghan, associate professor of HLPM, and who credited Jones for his own interest in health policy, guided the discussion among the group of panelists, which included Bizu Gelaye, chief of the epidemiology branch and senior investigator at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; John Green, professor and director of the Southern Rural Development Center; Jamilah Michener, associate professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University; Philip Rocco, associate professor of political science at Marquette University; and Lynn Woo, associate director of the Center for Population Studies at The University of Mississippi.

Each of the speakers identified themes or approaches to health equity in the book that most resonated with them, praising the level of quantitative and qualitative detail that Jones weaves throughout the publication to show how social, economic, and political systems intersect and impede individuals’ abilities to achieve optimal health. After spending four years speaking with residents and policymakers in the Delta for this project, he incorporates this data to show how major forces—including housing, jobs, food, and education—influence health inequitably. 

Compared to the rest of the nation, the Mississippi Delta is among the most socieonomcially disadvantaged regions with poor health outcomes, including high rates of maternal mortality, and chronic disease.

“Mississippi ranks first in maternal mortality, with Black mothers dying at the highest rate,” says Gelaye, citing a recent report from the Mississippi Maternal Mortality Report that indicates that Black maternal mortality in Mississippi is four times higher than among White peers. “But what I love about the book is that it’s less about the negative statistics in Mississippi, and more about a call for action presented in the most public healthy way,” he says.

Jones’ book “provides a huge set of lessons for how social scientists might think and restructure their work in ways that serve the common good,” said Rocco.

While optimistic and humanistic, Jones does not shy away from parsing complex or uncomfortable structural problems, says Michener, citing a line that states “the problem is racism, not race.”

“This is taking what can be understood to be a demographic trait, and instead, highlighting that is a process—a process over which we have some agency…where it isn’t just inevitable that certain kinds of people will always be at the bottom.” Instead, she says, “it is based on a series of political choices that can be changed. That way of understanding and thinking about racism and injustice is really important, and David is able to illuminate that in Ripples of Hope in ways that aren’t alienating or accusatory or negative, [and instead] feel productive and generative and important.”

At the reception, Dean Sandro Galea announced that Ripples of Hope will be the 2025-2026 SPH Reads selection.

“I can think of no better vision to help guide this engagement in the coming year than David’s,” Galea said. “I have long felt that in losing David, we lost one of the most promising public health careers of his generation. Yet, in reading his book, in remembering him today, it is clear that his contributions to the field remain ongoing…Our memory of David as a person stands as an example of kindness and generosity of spirit. He is missed everyday and his legacy will always be a living presence in this community.” Dean Galea recently published a tribute to David Jones and a review of his book in Health Affairs.