Carolyn C. Cannuscio, ScDAssistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health
Carolyn Cannuscio is a social epidemiologist whose current work centers on the causes and consequences of health disparities. She is interested in the health toll of society's failure to meet universal human needs for adequate food, shelter, and health care as well as safety.
In her work as a teacher and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, Dr. Cannuscio has two main goals. One is to identify strategies for improving population health by employing novel and varied methods, beyond the traditional arsenal of quantitative methods employed by epidemiologists. The second is to build strength in the field of population health by engaging citizens, including students, in the research process. The Health of Philadelphia Photo-documentation Project accomplished both aims, by developing new insights regarding constraints on the health of urban residents, and by drawing from tremendous input and energy from collaborating students and community members. The project was conceived during Dr. Cannuscio's participation in the Santa Fe Science Writers Workshop and was initiated during her tenure as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar.
Dr. Cannuscio also has an interest in the arts. How can both creating and viewing art improve health, well-being, and quality of life? The domain of art is relatively untouched in epidemiology and public health. With Eve Weiss and David Asch, Dr. Cannuscio is investigating (and applying) the power of art, including photography, to communicate across cultural and social divides and to transform communities faced with disadvantage.
Dr. Cannuscio earned her undergraduate degree in an interdisciplinary Health and Society program at Brown University and her Master and Doctor of Science degrees at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has worked in a range of nonprofit and for-profit organizations, including an adolescent substance abuse prevention program (Human Understanding and Growth Seminars), a nationwide child and elder care improvement initiative (through WFD Consulting), and corporate epidemiological research (at Merck Research Laboratories). She is indebted to her mentors who have helped her develop as a scholar and teacher, including Ichiro Kawachi, Eric Rimm, Lisa Berkman, Sally Zierler, Ann Dill, David Lewis, Harry Guess, Maurice Hilleman, and Abby Shapiro.
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Carolyn C. Cannuscio
