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
bluesky: @aliciariley.bsky.social
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