Dr Julia Puebla Fortier Biography

Julia Puebla Fortier, DrPH, is the research and professional learning lead for Arts & Health South West (UK). She conducts participatory action research on a variety of creative health topics including young people and wellbeing, end-of-life support, and cross-sectoral collaboration. She leads the Creative Health Learning Alliance’s training activities and development work on core competencies for arts and health, especially in the context of social prescribing. Her doctoral research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine looked at the emotional labour of creative facilitators working with people with complex health and psychosocial conditions.

Over the last 30 years, Ms. Fortier has also worked to improve access to health services for migrant, minority and other culturally diverse populations. As the Executive Director of the NGO DiversityRx, Ms. Fortier led the development of key policy, research and practice tools on language access and health equity, including the landmark U.S. Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health Care. With WHO and the International Organization for Migration, she was facilitator and rapporteur for two ministerial-level global consultations on migrant health. She also led policy development and oversight activities for the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health and the Environment. She nurtures a creative life that includes vocal and instrumental music, dance, writing, mixed media, and raising two (now young adult) children.