Cassandra Okechukwu, a Center investigator, has been promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Since joining the department in July 2010, Cassandra has achieved a national reputation as a leading scholar in the area of work-based health disparities. Her work is notable for applying a broader social determinants framework to understand the health of low-wage workers. Her approach skillfully combines quantitative analysis with qualitative approaches to understand the “lived realities” of low-wage workers. Her scholarship has been lauded for developing a broader conceptualization of workplace hazards that incorporates many psychosocial exposures (such as discrimination), as well as a fuller assessment of the impacts of worksite interventions and policies that explicitly considers issues of social justice and equity.
Cassandra’s work has been published in some of the top journals in her field, including the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, American Sociological Review, Cancer, Pediatrics, Preventive Medicine, and Social Science and Medicine.
Cassandra’s contributions were recognized by two major awards in 2015: the James G. Zimmer New Investigator Research Award from the American Public Health Association and the Best Junior Scholar Paper Award from the VI International Conference of Work and Family.
In addition to her dedication to mentoring her students and postdoctoral fellows, Cassandra is appreciated for her service on several School-wide committees, including the Committee for the Advancement of Women Faculty, the Nigerian Students Association, and the Women, Gender & Health steering committee.