Faculty

Kristin Bright
Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz (Anthropology)
NYU School of Medicine- Research Anthropologist and Instructor, NYU Cancer Institute; Research Director, International Center of Excellence in Breast Cancer
Course: Capstone

Dr. Kristin Bright is a medical anthropologist and instructor at the NYU School of Medicine and NYU Cancer Institute in New York City. She is research director of the Center of Excellence (COE) in breast cancer, an international consortium of clinicians and researchers in India, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States, and heads up the sociocultural study component of that program. At NYC’s Bellevue Hospital Center, Bright and colleagues are conducting mixed method analyses of barriers influencing presentation and treatment of breast cancer among multi-ethnic and medically underserved women as well as factors impacting the design and success of cancer health interventions including navigation and post-treatment surveillance. In addition to personal beliefs about the origin/etiology of disease, Bright is interested on how social and political structures such as patient-provider interactions and public health systems impact access to cancer treatment and follow up across national settings. Bright completed her Ph.D. at University of California Santa Cruz in 1998 and conducted extensive fieldwork on Unani (Greco-Islamic) medicine in India. She completed postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley at the School of Public Health, and has taught courses in anthropology, public health, political economy, and research methods. Bright lives in NYC where she enjoys discovering new and unusual venues for art, music, dance, theater, and especially food.