About

Alicia R. Riley, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Core Faculty in Global and Community Health at University of California, Santa Cruz

I’m an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Core Faculty in Global and Community Health at University of California, Santa Cruz. As a sociologist, I study the population health effects of racialized structural inequity, with a particular focus on their modifiability through policy and other types of social change. I direct my research toward questions that are likely to generate evidence that: 1) reveals the dynamic nature of racialized health inequities; 2) highlights the intersectional nature of health inequities by disaggregating beyond race and ethnicity; and 3) challenges deficit narratives that maintain unfair health dis/advantages. Much of my recent research focuses on inequities in mortality and bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to my Health Equity and Beyond lab at UCSC, I co-direct the Pandemic Equity and Analytics Research Lab (with Yea-Hung Chen). I also currently co-lead a multi-campus research project on Native American and Indigenous migrant health and social networks in California called Connect / Conectados. I have methodological expertise in complex survey analysis and substantive knowledge in older adult health, life course theory, racialization, Critical Race Theory, and health inequality theory.

I completed my postdoctoral training at the University of California-San Francisco, my PhD and MA in Sociology at the University of Chicago, my MPH in Epidemiology/Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and my MA in Latin American Studies at Stanford University.

Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, I worked in community health in non-profit and government settings focused on health issues facing Latino communities in the U.S. and Mexico. I have a longstanding involvement in immigrant rights organizing.

Connect with me!

alicia[dot]riley[at]ucsc[dot]edu
twitter: @aliciacita
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