MHS Welcomes New Faculty
On behalf of the Vanderbilt Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, it is my great honor to welcome a remarkable group of professors into our community of scholars for the 2022-23 academic year.
More information about our department’s many achievements and events can be found in our Annual Report.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to MHS!
Our new cadre of scholars:
Hired in 2022
Dr. Panka Bencsik, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society and of Public Policy
Dr. Bencsik is a health and crime economist with research on the opioid crisis, mental health, and the US criminal justice system.
Dr. Marcus Dillender, Assistant Professor of MHS (working in the LGBTQ
Policy Lab)
Dr. Dillender’s research lies at the intersection of health, labor, and public economics and focuses on occupational health, health-related insurance, public health programs, and health care labor markets.
Dr. Katherine Wen, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society and of Public Policy
Dr. Wen research examines the impact of public policies on health outcomes and health care utilization, with a focus on infectious disease and the health of older adults and those in nursing homes.
Dr. Heidi Bludau, Senior Lecturer in Medicine, Health, and Society and Assistant Director of Graduate Studies
Dr. Bludau is a medical anthropologist who focuses on the migration of healthcare workers through lenses of the professional identity of nurses and organizational culture.
Dr. Jaime Bruce, Senior Lecturer in Medicine, Health, and Society
Dr. Jaime Bruce has a background in Maternal and Child Health and focuses on children and families facing challenging healthcare events.
Hired in 2021
Dr. Kirsty Clark, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society, of Public Policy Studies, and of Psychology and Human Development
Dr. Clark is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist whose research investigates LGBTQ+ population mental health with a focus on suicide prevention.
Dr. Lucie Kalousova, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society and of Sociology
Dr. Kalousova studies the relationship between social and health policy and health disparities. Most recently, her work has focused on the long-term effects of exclusion from the labor force.
Dr. Melinda Buntin named University Professor
Dr. Melinda J. B. Buntin, University Distinguished Professor of Health Policy, Department of MHS
Dr. Buntin research focuses on how to improve the value produced by our health care system from the perspective of patients, taxpayers, members of the health care workforce, and society as a whole.
Emeritus appointment
Dr. Hector Myers, Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society, of Psychology, and of African American and Diaspora Studies, Emeritus
Dr. Myers has published extensively on biobehavioral and psychosocial factors contributing to ethnic disparities in health & mental health.
Jonathan M. Metzl, MD, PhD
Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Medicine, Health, and Society
Director, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society
Professor of Psychiatry
https://www.dyingofwhiteness.com
http://www.jonathanmetzl.com
@JonathanMetzl