Ruth-Alma Turkson-Ocran, PhD, MPH, RN, FNP-BC, CNE is a clinical investigator with the division of General Medicine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and faculty at Harvard Medical School. She is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner by training.

She received a PhD from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She received a Masters in Nursing (MSN) and Masters in Public Health (MPH) in Health Promotion/Behavioral Sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and is also a graduate of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO where she obtained her Associate and Bachelor of Science degrees in Nursing.

Her research interests are in health disparities, social determinants of health, cardiometabolic health including hypertension, and wearable devices. She also has experience in immigrant health and has examined nativity differences in biopsychosocial health determinants including stress, discrimination, depression, social support, and resilience.

Dr. Turkson-Ocran’s current research is centered around hypertension, its associated co-morbidities, complications, and prevention and food insecurity. She is also involved in projects examining racial differences in blood pressure patterns from office, ambulatory, and home blood pressure measurements and their associated health outcomes. 

Dr. Turkson-Ocran is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Honor Society of Nurses, the Preventative Cardiovascular Nurses Association (PCNA), and the American Heart Association (AHA)