Jenna van Draanen PhD, MPH

The aim my research is to improve science and address health disparities through the rigorous evaluation of interventions and their methods of implementation. My research agenda advances scientific understanding of the social forces influencing mental health and substance use disorders, and I do this through a focus on the harms of socioeconomic marginalization and childhood adversity and in a way that includes the perspectives of people with lived experience. I approach my research with a life course perspective that ensures phenomena like childhood adversity are properly contextualized and situated with an understanding of the way adversities build over time and across generations, through the concept of linked lives. While my primary appointment is in the School of Nursing, I am an interdisciplinary researcher at heart, coming to the UW from a postdoctoral fellowship in Sociology at the University of British Columbia (in Vancouver, Canada), and holding a PhD in Community Health Sciences from UCLA.

 

Education:

University of British Columbia, Department of Sociology, 2017-2020, Postdoctoral Fellowship

University of California Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health, 2013-2017, PhD

University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, 2009-2011, MPH

University of Waterloo, School of Public Health and Health Systems, 2004-2009, BSc

 

Awards, accolades and distinguished memberships: APHA Mental Health Section Lutterman Award, 2017

 

What do you love about the UW School of Nursing?

I love how open, welcoming, and supportive everyone is. I am inspired by the SON’s commitments to value and honor diverse experiences and perspectives, create welcoming and respectful learning environments, and promote access, opportunity and justice.

Department

Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing

Research Areas

• Innovative Interventions
• Health Equity
• Lifespan Health