Mark A. Nichter, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Term: July 1, 2011 - December 31, 2014
Mark A. Nichter is Regents Professor and coordinator of the Graduate Medical Anthropology Training Program at the University of Arizona. He received a BA in philosophy and psychology at the George Washington University (1971), a Ph.D. in social anthropology (University of Edinburgh, 1977), a M.P.H. in International Health (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 1978), and postdoctoral training in clinically applied anthropology (University of Hawaii, 1980-83). He holds joint appointments in the Departments of Family and Community Medicine and the College of Public Health at the University of Arizona as well as the Arizona Cancer Center. Dr. Nichter has over 30 years of experience conducting health related research in Asia, Africa, and North America and is well known to the global health as well as the tobacco control communities. His most recent research has focused on neglected and emerging diseases, tobacco, and pharmaceutical practice. He is presently the PI on a NIH Fogarty International Center funded project developing culturally appropriate approaches to tobacco cessation in medical schools, clinics and community settings in India and Indonesia. He also coordinates social science research for an UBS Optimus Foundation-funded Buruli Ulcer project in West Africa.
Dr. Nichter is the author of numerous articles in a wide variety of health-related fields and books including Global Health: Why Cultural Perceptions, Social Representations, and Biopolitics Matter (2008). He has extensive experience coordinating transdisciplinary research projects internationally as well as nationally, and served as senior health social science advisor to the International Network of Clinical Epidemiology for over 20 years. Dr. Nichter has been a consultant to several international health and development donor agencies, foundations and organizations including the Ford, UBS Optimus, and Rockefeller foundations, UNICEF and WHO. He has participated on three Institute of Medicine panels focusing on tobacco use among children and complementary and alternative medicine in the United States, and global zoonotic disease surveillance. Dr. Nichter was a core member of the Robert Woods Johnson-funded Tobacco Etiology Research Network.
Dr. Nichter has advised over 30 Ph.D. students in medical anthropology and scores of nurse, medicine, and public health professionals during their academic training. In clinical settings, Dr. Nichter spent years conducting behavioral rounds on the wards modeling interviews in support of patient-centered care. Dr. Nichter has been the recipient of several prestigious awards in the field of anthropology including the Margaret Mead Award, the Society for Medical Anthropology’s Career Achievement Award, the Graduate Student Mentor Award, and the Rudolph Virchow Award.
