Alexa Dietrich

Alexa Dietrich is an associate professor of anthropology at Wagner College. She is trained in both medical anthropology and epidemiology, receiving both a PhD and MPH from Emory University. Her interests lie at the intersections of culture and health, technology and the natural environment, and the application of qualitative and quantitative methods. She conducted community action research for seven years in the northern pharmaceutical corridor of Puerto Rico, published in the monograph The Drug Company Next Door: Pollution, Jobs, and Community Health in Puerto Rico (NYU Press, 2013), winner of the Julian Steward award for the best book in environmental anthropology in 2015.

Dietrich is currently conducting a longitudinal study of the long-term recovery process following Hurricane Sandy in Staten Island, NY. Her research focuses on comparative environmental health vulnerabilities, preparedness, decision-making, and resilience within multi-generational Staten Island families and communities of recent Latino immigrants. She has been recognized with faculty awards in teaching and service, as well as the Rudolf Virchow Award from the Critical Anthropology for Global Health Caucus of the Society for Medical Anthropology. She is the faculty director of Wagner’s nationally-recognized first-year program, a pioneer curriculum in undergraduate civic engagement, learning, and research.