Nineequa Blanding is the Director of Health and Wellness at the Boston Foundation—one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations that devotes its resources to building and sustaining a vital, prosperous city and region, where justice and opportunity are extended to everyone. In this role, Blanding oversees the development, implementation and evaluation of one of the Foundation’s strategic priorities to address the health needs of the people of Greater Boston with a special focus on low-income people of color.

Prior to joining the Boston Foundation, Blanding held several significant progressive leadership positions with the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). She was previously the Director of the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Obesity and Hypertension Demonstration Project—a three year, $4.6 million Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) funded effort to develop effective strategies to address the inequities that contribute to the gap in these health outcomes among residents of color.

Blanding later served as the Associate Director of the Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Division and the Associate Director of the Office of Health Equity at BPHC. She has over 12 years of experience in program planning, research and evaluation in academia, health care and local health department settings, including Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Blanding also has years of research experience in neuroscience with notable researchers at Emory and Duke University, specifically focusing on the mechanisms underlying fear learning and memory and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The National Institutes of Health (NIH) previously awarded her a post-baccalaureate training fellowship to examine the trauma-related risk factors for PTSD.

She has co-authored several publications, including the examination of the effects of early life trauma as a risk factor for adult psychopathology. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Spelman College and a Master’s with Honors in Public Health from Long Island University. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, she enjoys living in Boston and currently resides in Dorchester

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