Kate Strully

Associate Professor, Sociology Link

CAPS Biography:

I am a sociologist who studies social determinants of racial-ethnic and class health disparities in the United States. In line with CAPS themes of health and wellbeing, policy, and place, I have several projects that investigate how social policies and legislation shape health disparities. In this work, I use temporal and geographic variation in policy implementation to try to identify causal effects that may inform relevant policy debates. Policies that I have focused on in this work include Earned Income Tax Credits, minimum wage policies, immigration enforcement legislation, and the Affordable Care Act. My most recent work in this area investigates how residential zoning laws that serve as key policy levers behind segregation in metro areas may influence health disparities in elderly urban populations. In another area of work, that relates particularly to CAPS emphasis on the importance of place, I investigate how community conditions and social relationships shape disparities in susceptibility and potential exposure to infectious disease. Focusing particularly on elderly populations, my work in this area explores how community and contextual factors—such as, county social vulnerability measures and racial composition of nursing homes—are associated with disparities in seasonal flu vaccination.