5 Must Reads for Public Health Professionals 2025

If you're a public health enthusiast or professional, you probably love a good read. As a self-proclaimed public health nerd, I’ve curated a list of must-read books to inspire, educate, and challenge your perspective in 2025. Let’s dive in!

#5 The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and The Business of Aids by Elizabeth Pisani

Coming in at #5 is an oldie, but a goodie. Published in 2009, this book details the career of Elizabeth Pisani and her international efforts in researching HIV prevention and AIDS at large. Pisani does an excellent job detailing the intricacies that come with working hands-on with international populations and the importance of culturally competent care.

The quote below comes from the fourth chapter of Pisani’s book, detailing the unfortunate failure of HIV prevention in Africa.

“Africa is a giant, in-your-face failure for the HIV prevention industry. It might be even worse without our prevention efforts, though it is hard to see how it could be. On the prevention balance sheet, we’re in the red to the tune of 45 million infections. In some countries, over 80 per cent of all adults will die of HIV. A schoolgirl in South Africa is thirteen times more likely to be infected with HIV than a woman who sells sex for a living in China. A civil servant in Swaziland is forty times more likely to have HIV than a junkie in Australia.”

Amazon Link to the Wisdom of Whores

#4 Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

Published in 2024, this book proves especially relevant as we enter 2025 under the second Trump administration. Sociologist Matthew Desmond examines the power dynamics in American politics that perpetuate wealth inequality—keeping the poor trapped in poverty while preserving the wealth of the affluent. Mixed with personal stories and incredibly well-researched data, this book is both heartbreaking and inspiring.

While this book contains many jaw-dropping quotes that challenged my worldview, I believe this quote from chapter three of Desmond's book captures its essence. After describing the starch reality of how America exploits our prisoners for (relatively) free labor, Desmond explains that simply paying people a fair income for their time and efforts could skyrocket the quality of life for millions of Americans.

“‘It’s more complicated than that’, some will say. Most social problems are complicated, of course, but a retreat into complexity is more often a reflection of our social standing than evidence of critical intelligence. Hungry people want bread. The rich convene a panel of experts. Complexity is the refuge of the powerful.”

Amazon Link to Poverty, by America

#3 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

What public health professional doesn’t love data? Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez is a deep dive into the data that shapes our lives and reveals a glaring hole in the system: women. It is well documented that women are often left out of discussions at CEO round tables and left out of elected positions in local/federal governments, but did you know that even the data people use to make decisions while in these positions of power is missing women? Women have a more difficult time getting medical help, progressing in their careers, obtaining transportation, and even using the restroom.

As a woman who has personally fallen victim to the “Myth of Meritocracy,” this book felt validating. Like a hug from a friend saying “Yeah girl - I get it”. As we enter Trump's second presidential term, here is a relevant quote from Perez that explains the rise of his first presidency.

“One study which looked specifically at white Americans’ attitudes and candidate preferences found that Trump’s success reflected the rise of ‘white identity politics’, which the researchers defined as ‘an attempt to protect the collective interests of white voters via the ballot box’.92 White identity, they concluded, ‘strongly predicts a preference for Trump’. And so did male identity. Analysis of how gender affected support for Trump revealed that ‘the more hostile voters were toward women, the more likely they were to support Trump’.93 In fact, hostile sexism was nearly as good at predicting support for Trump as party identification.”

Amazon link to Invisible Women

#2 We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers

All of the other books on this list have a clear connection to public health. So, why is a book about becoming a millionaire included among the top five public health books to read in 2025?

Because the cost of living crisis isn't going away, and we need to find a way to navigate these challenges. (Also - wealth is a social determinant of health. Duh.)

Rachel Rodgers is a powerhouse and an inspiration to women and people of color everywhere! This book describes the harsh economic realities that many women and people of color operate in every day. Rodgers empowers minority populations to take control of their wealth and provides a step-by-step guide on how we can use our autonomy to earn money and gain power.

Rodgers emphasizes the importance of recognizing the facts - many of us are broke.

“MagnifyMoney (https://www.magnifymoney.com) did an indepth study in four hundred metro areas across the United States on what it looks like to earn $100,000 and found that most households are spending $25,000 or more every year on their housing alone. These households are spending $10,000 or more each year on childcare as well. Even in the most affordable metro areas in the United States, $100,000 households are left with 2 percent disposable income (that’s only $2,000 per year) after paying their basic expenses. In other words, even when you earn $100,000, you are likely only one emergency away from financial distress. In 2018, with the economy at its most robust in years, 61 percent of Americans said they could not cover a surprise expense of $400. In 2019, a study by the AARP found that 53 percent of American households did not have an emergency savings account—including a quarter of those who earn more than $150,000 a year.”

Furthermore, Rodgers inspires her readers by stating that societal change occurs when the right individuals have the financial resources to make a difference.

“Martin Luther King Jr. said: ‘Privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. . . . We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.’ Demands require capital. It takes money to lobby Congress. It takes money to support protestors who march in the streets. It takes money to bail out activists and fund research that provides evidence of the need for change. So it’s time for us, as women, to turn toward our money. To begin to focus on our earning potential and our ability to generate wealth.”

Amazon Link to We Should All Be Millionaires

#1 Children Under Fire: An American Crisis by John Woodrow Cox

In the #1 spot, John Woodrow Cox covers a public health phenomenon unique to the United States: school shootings. I must admit that I still have not finished this book. Although purchased in 2022, I have only been able to read a chapter at a time since the subject matter is so emotionally heavy.

Cox does an exceptional job detailing the statistics of gun violence and providing first-hand accounts of the terrible harm this phenomenon inflicts on the most vulnerable of our society: children. Following the story of two pen pals Ava (age 7) and Tyshaun (age 8) who were both traumatized by American gun violence, Cox depicts the elaborate economy of gun violence in the US and the politics/politicians that perpetuate this tragedy.

A common theme throughout is the reality that gun violence most often impacts low-income, urban neighborhoods accommodating populations of ethnic and racial minorities.

ShotSpotter, a company that’s developed a high-tech gunshot detection system, found that for every homicide in urban neighborhoods, the system identified between 125 and 150 illegal incidents of gunfire, according to David Chipman, who worked at ShotSpotter after serving twenty-five years as a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). In a separate review of a single school year, the firm discovered that between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., guns had been fired within one thousand feet of 66 percent of DC’s public and charter schools. For Chipman, the findings called to mind the DC sniper case he worked on in 2002. In the Washington region, ten people were killed and three wounded in a series of seemingly random shootings that terrorized the community. ‘What that sniper invoked was a fear level amongst white, suburban communities that I would say is ever-present in Southeast,’ he told me, noting how differently law enforcement responded to those attacks, investing millions of dollars and hundreds of investigators, than it does to similar bursts of gun violence in poorer, minority neighborhoods.”

Amazon Link to Children Under Fire

Conclusion: Read More!

Let’s make 2025 a year of nerdy, public health books hitting the best sellers lists! And if you read any of the books above, reach out! I would love to talk to other like-minded professionals about the subjects we find so important in 2025.