Nancy Krieger

{{short description|Social epidemiologist}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Nancy Krieger | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Nancy Krieger at AAAS 2025 02.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Nancy Jane Krieger | birth_date =  | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | home_town = | other_names = | pronounce = | residence = | citizenship = | fields = Epidemiology<br>Public health | workplaces = Harvard School of Public Health | patrons = | education = Harvard University<br>University of Washington<br>University of California, Berkeley | alma_mater = | thesis_title = Race, class, and health: studies of breast cancer and hypertension | thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80058629 | thesis_year = 1989 | doctoral_advisor =  | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = Ecosocial theory<br>Race and health in the United States | influences = | influenced = | awards = United States Department of Health and Human Services Innovation in Prevention Award (2003) | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }} '''Nancy Krieger''' is an American epidemiologist who is professor of social epidemiology in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

==Education and career== Raised on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Drexler |first=Maxine |date=April 2006 |title=The People's Epidemiologists |url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2006/03/the-peoples-epidemiologi.html |website=Harvard Magazine}}</ref> Krieger studied biochemistry as an undergraduate at Harvard University and earned a master's degree at the University of Washington.<ref name=hm>{{cite web | url=http://harvardmagazine.com/2006/03/the-peoples-epidemiologi.html | title=The People's Epidemiologists | work=Harvard Magazine | date=March–April 2006 | accessdate=8 July 2016 | author=Drexler, Madeline}}</ref> Krieger received her PhD in epidemiology from University of California, Berkeley in 1989. She joined the faculty of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 1995. In 2004, she became an ISI highly cited researcher.<ref name=hsph>{{cite web | url=https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nancy-krieger/ | title=Nancy Krieger | work=Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health | accessdate=8 July 2016}}</ref>

==Research== Krieger has conducted research on the relationship between racism, social class, and health in the United States since the 1980s.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/03/how-racism-is-bad-for-our-bodies/273911/ | title=How Racism Is Bad for Our Bodies | work=The Atlantic | date=12 March 2013 | accessdate=8 July 2016 | author=Silverstein, Jason}}</ref><ref name=hm/> In 2008, she conducted research that found that socioeconomic disparities in mortality rates had narrowed from 1966 to 1980, but had widened since then.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/us/23health.html?_r=0 | title=Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation | work=New York Times | date=23 March 2008 | accessdate=8 July 2016 | author=Pear, Robert}}</ref> In 2015, she and her colleagues published a paper arguing that law enforcement-related deaths in the United States should be a "notifiable condition", meaning that public health workers would have to report such deaths to a state or local agency.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/12/08/458952821/congress-still-limits-health-research-on-gun-violence | title=Congress Still Limits Health Research On Gun Violence | work=NPR | date=8 December 2015 | accessdate=8 July 2016 | last = Kodjak | first = Alison | author-link= Alison Kodjak }}</ref> Krieger co-founded the American Public Health Association's Spirit of 1848 caucus which centers their attention on ways to limit social inequities in health. In January 2023, the National Institute of Health granted over $3.3 million towards her groups project examining the effects of discrimination on sleep disorders and psychological distress.<ref>{{Cite web |title=‘Killing a Generation of Scientists’: Two HMS Researchers on the Toll of Funding Cuts {{!}} Magazine {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/5/1/hms-funding-cuts/ |access-date=2026-02-06 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}</ref>

==Personal life== Krieger is one of two children of endocrinologist Dorothy Krieger and neurologist Howard Krieger. Her brother, Jim Krieger, is the director of Healthy Food America.<ref name=hm/><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.healthyfoodamerica.org/our_staff | title=Our Staff | work=Healthy Food America Website | accessdate=27 May 2017}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nancy-krieger/ Faculty page] {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krieger, Nancy}} Category:Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty Category:Living people Category:UC Berkeley School of Public Health alumni Category:American women epidemiologists Category:American epidemiologists Category:Social epidemiologists Category:American public health doctors Category:University of Washington alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Harvard College alumni Category:21st-century American women Category:Women public health doctors