Christine Dannhausen-Brun, MPH

Lead Community Champion

Christine Dannhausen-Brun is a public health researcher, photographer and mother. She grew up in Door County, Wisconsin, the eldest of six children, where she developed her strong work ethic and her lifelong dedication to community service. Christine earned a BA in psychology from the University of Chicago and a MPH from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a major in Health Policy Administration. She has also completed additional post-baccalaureate work at Loyola University of Chicago in the basic sciences. 

Christine has 10+ years' experience as a public health researcher at The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention, now known as Cure Violence, the LaRabida - University of Chicago Research and Policy Center and at the Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and Early Intervention. Her work included qualitative and quantitative research, instrument development and managing several longitudinal research projects. Christine has spent the last two decades doing volunteer and philanthropy work for organizations including Boy Scouts of America, Girls Scouts, Community Consolidated School District 181 and Hinsdale Township High School District 86. Throughout her work, she has focused on improving the lives of children and their families. 

Her leadership skills were further developed as she served on the school board of, and eventually steered the executive and development committees, of a private, all-girls Catholic high school on the southside of Chicago. She went on from this position to spend over a decade further honing her development skills as a Chair for multiple events for Advocate Aurora Christ Medical Center and Advocate Aurora Children’s Hospital. Christine has sharpened her communication and photography skills through service at her children’s elementary, middle and high schools. Her photos have been featured in multiple non-profit annual reports, brochures and catalogs as well as on websites and in books.

Christine recently returned to work as a consultant to the Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and Early Intervention to work on interview and data refinement. Her passion for public health was rekindled as the pandemic arrived in the US and she has sought out ways to make a positive impact through countering mis- and disinformation as well as educating her local community. She is currently on the Ad Hoc Health Committee advising the Superintendent for her local school district on public health metrics.  

Christine and her husband, an anesthesiologist, live in Chicago’s western suburbs with their six children. When not sailing on Lake Michigan with her family, Christine can be found walking their one year old puppies, a Golden Retriever and a Saint Bernard, around town.