Peter Baltrus, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine and a senior researcher with the school's National Center for Primary Care. He is an epidemiologist who studies why health differs from place to place and from community to community, and what helps some communities do better than others.

Much of his work uses local data. He has studied health and healthcare at the county level to find communities where health gaps are small or absent, and to learn what sets them apart. He led an American Heart Association study on what helps African American communities stay heart-healthy. He has also studied local patterns in COVID-19, maternal health, and Staph infections. Dr. Baltrus teaches statistics and data science, and he focuses on turning public data into evidence that communities can use.