Nancy Krieger

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Biography

Nancy Krieger is Professor of Social Epidemiology, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the HSPH Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender, and Health. She has been a member of the School’s faculty since 1995.

Dr. Krieger is an internationally recognized social epidemiologist (PhD, Epidemiology, UC Berkeley, 1989), with a background in biochemistry, philosophy of science, and history of public health, plus 35+ years of activism involving social justice, science, and health. In 2004, she became a Clarivate/ISI highly cited scientist, a group comprising “less than one-half of one percent of all publishing researchers,” with her ranking reaffirmed in 2015, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

In 2013, Dr. Krieger received the Wade Hampton Frost Award from the Epidemiology Section of the American Public Health Association, and in 2015, she was awarded the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship and re-awarded its renewal in 2020. In 2020, she was awarded the American College of Epidemiology’s “Outstanding Contributions to Epidemiology” award, and she and her team received the 2020 American Journal of Epidemiology “Paper of the Year” award for their study on historical redlining and cancer stage at diagnosis (the first ever study on this issue). In 2021, she was appointed as member of the UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the Slave Route Project: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage. In 2023, she was awarded the Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health by the American Public Health Association, its “oldest and most prestigious medal.”

Dr. Krieger's work addresses three topics: (1) conceptual frameworks to understand, analyze, and improve the people's health, including the ecosocial theory of disease distribution she first proposed in 1994 and its focus on embodiment and equity; (2) etiologic research on societal determinants of population health and health inequities; and (3) methodologic research on improving monitoring of health inequities. In April 2011, Dr. Krieger's pathbreaking book, Epidemiology and the People's Health: Theory and Context, was published by Oxford University Press; she published the thoroughly revised and updated second edition in 2024. This book presents the argument for why epidemiologic theory matters. Tracing the history and contours of diverse epidemiologic theories of disease distribution from ancient societies on through the development of - and debates within - contemporary epidemiology worldwide, it considers their implications for improving population health and promoting health equity.

In 2018, Dr. Krieger launched a new book series for Oxford University Press on "small books, big ideas in population health." Topics addressed include: “Political Sociology and the People's Health" (Beckfield, 2018); "Climate Change and the People's Health" (Friel, 2019); "Critical Epidemiology and The People's Health" (Breilh, 2021); "Ecosocial Theory, Embodied Truths, and The People's Health" (Krieger, 2021); and "Causal Inference and the People's Health" (Schwartz & Prins, 2025).

She is also editor of Embodying Inequality: Epidemiologic Perspectives (Baywood Press, 2004) and co-editor, with Glen Margo, of AIDS: The Politics of Survival (Baywood Publishers, 1994), and, with Elizabeth Fee, of Women's Health, Politics, and Power: Essays on Sex/Gender, Medicine, and Public Health (Baywood Publishers, 1994). In 1994 she co-founded, and still chairs, the Spirit of 1848 Caucus of the American Public Health Association, which is concerned with the links between social justice and public health.

Publications

• Association of cultural racism with breast cancer survival among United States adults, 2018-2020.

  Gupta A, Osazuwa-Peters OL, Thoumi A, Quezada-Pinedo HG, Krieger N, Brown T, Akinyemiju T. Am J Epidemiol 2026 Jun 04

  PMID: 42237574

• Cancer, climate change, fossil fuels, and war: a call for action.

  Krieger N. Lancet 2026 Apr 11

  PMID: 41941879

• Evidence for a Spectral Break or Curvature in the Spectrum of Astrophysical Neutrinos from 5 TeV to 10 PeV.

  Abbasi R, Ackermann M, Adams J, Agarwalla SK, Aguilar JA, Ahlers M, Alameddine JM, Ali S, Amin NM, Andeen K, Arguelles C, Ashida Y, Athanasiadou S, Axani SN, Babu R, Bai X, Baines-Holmes J, Balagopal V A, Barwick SW, Bash S, Basu V, Bay R, Beatty JJ, Becker Tjus J, Behrens P, Beise J, Bellenghi C, Benkel B, BenZvi S, Berley D, Bernardini E, Besson DZ, Blaufuss E, Bloom L, Blot S, Bodo I, Bontempo F, Book Motzkin JY, Boscolo Meneguolo C, Boser S, Botner O, Bottcher J, Braun J, Brinson B, Brisson-Tsavoussis Z, Burley RT, Butterfield D, Campana MA, Carloni K, Carpio J, Chattopadhyay S, Chau N, Chen Z, Chirkin D, Choi S, Clark BA, Coleman A, Coleman P, Collin GH, Coloma Borja DA, Connolly A, Conrad JM, Corley R, Cowen DF, De Clercq C, DeLaunay JJ, Delgado D, Delmeulle T, Deng S, Desiati P, de Vries KD, de Wasseige G, DeYoung T, Diaz-Velez JC, DiKerby S, Dittmer M, Domi A, Draper L, Dueser L, Durnford D, Dutta K, DuVernois MA, Ehrhardt T, Eidenschink L, Eimer A, Eller P, Ellinger E, Elsasser D, Engel R, Erpenbeck H, Esmail W, Eulig S, Evans J, Evenson PA, Fan KL, Fang K, Farrag K, Fazely AR, Fedynitch A, Feigl N, Finley C, Fischer L, Fox D, Franckowiak A, Fukami S, Furst P, Gallagher J, Ganster E, Garcia A, Garcia M, Garg G, Genton E, Gerhardt L, Ghadimi A, Glaser C, Glusenkamp T, Gonzalez JG, Goswami S, Granados A, Grant D, Gray SJ, Griffin S, Griswold S, Groth KM, Guevel D, Gunther C, Gutjahr P, Ha C, Haack C, Hallgren A, Halve L, Halzen F, Hamacher L, Ha Minh M, Handt M, Hanson K, Hardin J, Harnisch AA, Hatch P, Haungs A, Haussler J, Helbing K, Hellrung J, Henke B, Hennig L, Henningsen F, Heuermann L, Hewett R, Heyer N, Hickford S, Hidvegi A, Hill C, Hill GC, Hmaid R, Hoffman KD, Hooper D, Hori S, Hoshina K, Hostert M, Hou W, Huber T, Hultqvist K, Hymon K, Ishihara A, Iwakiri W, Jacquart M, Jain S, Janik O, Jansson M, Jeong M, Jin M, Kamp N, Kang D, Kang W, Kang X, Kappes A, Kardum L, Karg T, Karl M, Karle A, Katil A, Kauer M, Kelley JL, Khanal M, Khatee Zathul A, Kheirandish A, Kimku H, Kiryluk J, Klein C, Klein SR, Kobayashi Y, Kochocki A, Koirala R, Kolanoski H, Kontrimas T, Kopke L, Kopper C, Koskinen DJ, Koundal P, Kowalski M, Kozynets T, Krieger N, Krishnamoorthi J, Krishnan T, Kruiswijk K, Krupczak E, Kumar A, Kun E, Kurahashi N, Lad N, Lagunas Gualda C, Lallement Arnaud L, Lamoureux M, Larson MJ, Lauber F, Lazar JP, Leonard DeHolton K, Leszczynska A, Liao J, Lin C, Liu YT, Liubarska M, Love C, Lu L, Lucarelli F, Luszczak W, Lyu Y, Madsen J, Magnus E, Makino Y, Manao E, Mancina S, Mand A, Maris IC, Marka S, Marka Z, Marten L, Martinez-Soler I, Maruyama R, Mauro J, Mayhew F, McNally F, Mead JV, Meagher K, Mechbal S, Medina A, Meier M, Merckx Y, Merten L, Mitchell J, Molchany L, Montaruli T, Moore RW, Morii Y, Mosbrugger A, Moulai M, Mousadi D, Moyaux E, Mukherjee T, Naab R, Nakos M, Naumann U, Necker J, Neste L, Neumann M, Niederhausen H, Nisa MU, Noda K, Noell A, Novikov A, Pollmann AO, O'Dell V, Olivas A, Orsoe R, Osborn J, O'Sullivan E, Palusova V, Pandya H, Parenti A, Park N, Parrish V, Paudel EN, Paul L, Perez de Los Heros C, Pernice T, Peterson J, Plum M, Ponten A, Poojyam V, Popovych Y, Prado Rodriguez M, Pries B, Procter-Murphy R, Przybylski GT, Pyras L, Raab C, Rack-Helleis J, Rad N, Ravn M, Rawlins K, Rechav Z, Rehman A, Reistroffer I, Resconi E, Reusch S, Rho CD, Rhode W, Ricca L, Riedel B, Rifaie A, Roberts EJ, Robertson S, Rongen M, Rosted A, Rott C, Ruhe T, Ruohan L, Ryckbosch D, Saffer J, Salazar-Gallegos D, Sampathkumar P, Sandrock A, Sanger-Johnson G, Santander M, Sarkar S, Savelberg J, Scarnera M, Schaile P, Schaufel M, Schieler H, Schindler S, Schlickmann L, Schluter B, Schluter F, Schmeisser N, Schmidt T, Schroder FG, Schumacher L, Schwirn S, Sclafani S, Seckel D, Seen L, Seikh M, Seunarine S, Sevle Myhr PA, Shah R, Shefali S, Shimizu N, Skrzypek B, Snihur R, Soedingrekso J, Sogaard A, Soldin D, Soldin P, Sommani G, Spannfellner C, Spiczak GM, Spiering C, Stachurska J, Stamatikos M, Stanev T, et al. Phys Rev Lett 2026 Mar 27

  PMID: 41965033

• Psychological distress, racism, sexism, cissexism, heterosexism, ageism, and sizeism: analyzing patterns of association using explicit and implicit measures of discrimination.

  Krieger N, Johnson N, Chen JT, Reisner SL, Marini M, LeBlanc ME, Mayer KH, Oendari A, Valdez G, Khan T, Bright DM. AJE Adv 2026

  PMID: 42145798

• An epigenome-wide analysis of DNA methylation, racialized and economic inequities, and air pollution.

  Watkins SH, Testa C, Simpkin AJ, Smith GD, Coull B, De Vivo I, Tilling K, Waterman PD, Chen JT, Diez-Roux AV, Krieger N, Suderman M, Relton C. Clin Epigenetics 2025 Nov 27

  PMID: 41310776