Dr Courtney Choy is an epidemiologist and public health practitioner who has worked with Pacific communities for more than a decade. Raised in Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, she is committed to strengthening health and wellbeing across Pacific communities through research, education, mentorship and collaboration.
Courtney is a co-founding investigator of the Ola Tuputupua’e (“Growing Up”) project in Samoa, which follows children and their primary caregivers to better understand healthy growth and development, determinants of health outcomes, and changes in family health over time. She also works with communities and health leaders to co-design and test behavioural and lifestyle interventions addressing obesity and cardiometabolic risk among children in the United States and Pacific region.
Her research spans chronic disease prevention, epidemiology, implementation science, healthy ageing, community-based participatory research, health equity, nutrition and family health promotion. Her work has been supported by the United States National Institutes of Health.
Courtney has also contributed to public health emergency responses, including the Samoa measles outbreak and the COVID-19 response in Honolulu County, Hawaiʻi.
Her current roles include Lead Instructor for the Field Epidemiology Training Program in American Samoa; Consultant with the Pacific Island Health Officers’ Association; Adjunct Professor at Fiji National University; and Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. She is also a former United States Fulbright Fellow with the Samoa Ministry of Health.