Mary E. Andrews joins SoCJ/Alda Center as IDEA Fellow for health disparities
Mary E. Andrews, a researcher who explores health disparities and outcomes through an intersectionality lens, will join Stony Brook as an IDEA Fellow in Health Disparities and Critical Health. Her appointment will be with the School of Communication and Journalism and Alda Center for Communicating Science starting in the next academic year.
Cognizant of how society creates conditions that make individuals with marginalized identities more vulnerable to poorer health, Andrews’ work promotes health equity with message effects research. She investigates how intersecting social identities and experiences, and exposure to media combine to influence health and well-being. Her work has been applied across several domains, including tobacco, COVID-19, and HIV.
“Social scientists are increasingly discovering how different facets of individual identity and experience influence health outcomes at the individual and group level,” said Laura Lindenfeld, dean of the SoCJ and executive director of the Alda Center. “Mary’s work adds to that growing understanding and body of work by examining how these experiences and identities interconnect and how that interconnectedness influences public health. She is asking questions and uncovering information that can have tremendous impact on health communication and outcomes, and I am delighted that she will continue her work here at Stony Brook.”
Andrews has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Social Science and Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, and Addictive Behaviors. She has presented her work at more than 20 academic conferences across the country and internationally.
Deeply committed to service, Andrews has built inclusive networks of support and mentorship for students from historically underrepresented groups, and created a forum for other researchers to share ideas about research related to diversity and equity and to shine light on how to combat the “hidden curriculum” in academia.
Stony Brook’s IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Fellows will help catalyze Stony Brook’s commitment to inclusive solutions-driven research and scholarship in themes of critical importance and cross-disciplinary strength at the university. Andrews is one of several IDEA Fellows who will join the campus community this year.