Amber DeJohn portrait

Amber DeJohn

Assistant Professor of Geography and Public Health, CDPH Faculty & Associate of the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy

Biography

I am a health geographer interested in the geographies of aging, which I study through transport accessibility modeling, spatial data analysis, and place-based methods. My research examines how the built environment shapes lifelong health and well-being, with a particular focus on mobility and technology use in later life.

Currently, my work centers on identifying spatial disparities in access to care services and understanding their implications for quality of life among affected populations.

Department

Department of Geography

Education
  • Ph.D. in Geography

    University of Toronto, 2023

  • M.A. in Geography

    University of Toronto, 2019

  • B.A. in Political Theory; Economic Geography

    Michigan State University, 2018

Areas of Interest
  • Accessibility
  • Health Geography
  • Aging
  • ICT Use
  • Mixed Methods
Courses Taught
  • Medical Geography
  • GIS & Health
Honors & Awards
  • Jacques May Thesis Prize, Health & Medical Geography Group, American Association of Geographers

    2024

  • University of Toronto School of Cities Graduate Fellowship

    2022

  • Beinecke Scholarship, Beinecke Foundation

    2017

Selected Publications
  • BMC Public Health

    25(1), Article 513

    Mobility, ICT, and health: a built environment investigation of older Chinese migrants' social isolation and loneliness

    DeJohn, A., Liu, B., Ma, X., Widener, M. J., & Liu, Z. (2025)

  • Canadian Geographies / Geographies canadiennes

    69(1), e12961

    Alone together? A time use approach for examining socializing when travel is limited

    DeJohn, A., Liu, B., Ma, X., Widener, M. J., & Liu, Z. (2024)

  • Journal of Transport and Land Use

    15(1), 95-116

    Calculating place-based transit accessibility: Methods, tools and algorithmic dependence

    Higgins, C. D., Palm, M., DeJohn, A., Xi, L., Widener, M. J., Vaughan, J., Miller, E. J., & Farber, S. (2022)

  • The Professional Geographer

    75(1), 76-89

    Transit access to subsidized food stores in the U.S. Midwest

    DeJohn, A. D., Widener, M. J., & Shannon, J. (2023)