Honoring The Legacy of Nancy E. Adler, PhD
Dr. Nancy Adler is a renowned social scientist. Through her decades-long career in academic and public service, she has raised the status of social and behavioral sciences in medicine. One of her many accomplishments was leading research that led to the seminal papers showing that the social determinants of health are the most robust predictors of physical and mental health. She has also been a fierce advocate for women’s health and for improving the lives of those facing socioeconomic disadvantages. Throughout her career, she has inspired and supported many generations of young population health researchers.
To honor Dr. Adler’s legacy, we are raising funds for the Nancy Adler Endowed Lectureship Award, held annually, which will feature an outstanding scholar who is illuminating the field of social and health disparities and effective social interventions. If you would like to donate to this lectureship, use this link.
On October 26, 2023, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Health and Community hosted the Inaugural Dr. Nancy Adler Lecture. This event featured a presentation by Dr. Harvey Fineberg, President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. To view the full video, please visit this link.
Adler’s Renowned Accomplishments
Dr. Nancy Adler is a distinguished Lisa and John Pritzker Professor and Vice Chair of Psychology in the Departments of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics at UCSF. She is also the Director of the UCSF Center for Health and Community, and the National Program Office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Evidence for Action Program, which supports research on population health and health equity policies and programs. In addition to directing the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health for 15 years, Dr. Adler is a world-renowned social scientist who has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles. Her outstanding contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Chancellor’s Award for the Advancement of Women in 1995, the Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award in 2009, the Holly Smith Award for Exceptional Service to the UCSF School of Medicine in 2014, the Faculty Research Lecturer in Clinical Sciences in 2015, and the J. Michael McGinnis Leadership Excellence Award in 2020.
Research Articles by Nancy Adler, PhD
Most Cited
- Socioeconomic status and health: the challenge of the gradient
- Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy, White women
- Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress
- Socioeconomic disparities in health: pathways and policies
- Socioeconomic status and health: what we know and what we don't
- Socioeconomic inequalities in health: no easy solution
- US disparities in health: descriptions, causes, and mechanisms
- Subjective social status: its determinants and its association with measures of ill-health in the Whitehall II study
- Adolescents' perceptions of social status: development and evaluation of a new indicator
- Does subjective social status predict health and change in health status better than objective status?
- Health psychology: Why do some people get sick and some stay well?
Accolades From Colleagues
Congratulations On Your Retirement
On behalf of the faculty and staff at UCSF Center for Health and Community, we extend our sincere congratulations on your retirement. Your exceptional contributions and achievements have been instrumental in the success of the center, and we wish you all the best in this next chapter of your life.
A Farewell Gift
As part of our parting gift to Dr. Adler, members of the CHC community contributed to this Word Cloud, adding personal descriptors that reflect the impact she's had in our lives.
