Faculty Directory

Shelley White

Associate Professor of the Practice and Director of Experiential Learning

Profile

Shelley K. White, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor of the Practice and the Director of Experiential Learning within the Global Public Health and Common Good Program at the Connell School of Nursing, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Sociology. She received her B.S. and M.P.H. from Boston University, and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston College.聽

As an interdisciplinary scholar and global health practitioner, Dr. White focuses on health equity and human rights, the politics of health and health policy, and socio-structural determinants of health, including the influences of corporations, trade, militarism, borders, and social inequities on health. She has worked on migration and environmental justice in the US-Mexico borderlands, HIV/AIDS policy and programming in the US and sub-Saharan Africa, and on community-based development and social movement strategy in various domestic and global settings. Dr. White has served as a board member and pro-bono consultant for a number of organizations promoting global peace, justice and community development, and as Founding Chair of the Public Health Working Group on Primary Prevention of War; past Chair of the American Public Health Association's Trade and Health Forum; and past Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for Human Rights Cities: Boston and Beyond. Professor White teaches courses focused on global public health practice, health systems and policy, health equity and social justice; and she offers an experiential community-based learning course in the US-Mexico borderlands.

Selected Appointments and Awards

  • 2020 Simmons University Social Science, Education and Public Health Director鈥檚 Fellowship
  • 2019 American Public Health Association Victor Sidel and Barry Levy Award for Peace
  • 2018 Simmons University Dean鈥檚 Innovation & Collaboration Fund Award
  • 2013 Simmons University Professor of the Year Award
  • 2013 Worcester State University International Faculty Development Grant with the Council for International Educational Exchange
  • 2011 Boston College Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award

Selected Publications

  • White, Shelley K., Valerie Leiter, Mi Le, and Caitlyn Helms. 2023. 鈥淩egulatory Scripting: Examining Participation in the FDA鈥檚 Advisory Process.鈥澛犅PLOS One.
  • Kamya, Hugo A. and Shelley K. White. 2022. 鈥淧roviding Services to Youth Involved in Transactional Sex in Uganda: Professional Ethics in the Context of LGBTQ+ and Gender Oppression.鈥澛Families in Society. 104(3).聽https://doi.org/10.1177/1044389422113342
  • White, Shelley K. and Hugo A. Kamya. 2021. 鈥淭ransactional Sex, Consumer Society, and Neoliberalism in Uganda: A Political Economic Analysis of Drivers and Models of Response.鈥澛Global Public Health聽17(7): 1343-1357. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2021.1925943
  • White, Jonathan M. and Shelley K. White. 2019. The Engaged Sociologist: Connecting the Classroom to the Community (6th Ed). Sage Publishing. https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-engaged-sociologist/book252454
  • White, Shelley K. and Abigail Walters. 2018. 鈥淎ssessing Risk by Analogy: A Case Study of US聽Medical Device Risk Management Policy.鈥澛Health, Risk and Society聽7-8: 358-378.
  • Wiist, William H. and Shelley K. White (Eds.) 2017. Preventing War and Promoting Peace: A Guide for Health Professionals. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316551158
  • White, Shelley K. 2017. 鈥淧ublic Health and Prevention of War: The Power of Transnational, Transdisciplinary Collaboration.鈥澛Medicine, Conflict and Survival聽33(2): 101-109. (Invited Commentary) https://doi.org/10.1080/13623699.2017.1327155
  • Valerie Leiter, Shelley K. White and Abigail Walters. 2017. 鈥淎dverse Events Reports Associated with Vaginal Mesh: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.鈥澛Women鈥檚 Health Issues聽27(3): 279-285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.whi.2017.01.005
  • White, Shelley K. and Amy C. Finnegan. 2016. 鈥淥rganizing in Abeyance: Examining the Single聽Payer Healthcare Movements in the Era of Affordable Care Act Implementation.鈥澛Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements聽8(1): 45-76. http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Issue-8-1-White-and-Finnegan4.pdf
  • Amy C. Finnegan and Shelley K. White. 2016. 鈥淰ermont and Healthcare Reform Organizing:聽Human Rights Promise and Praxis.鈥澛Journal of Human Rights Practice聽8(1): 148-170. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huv020
  • White, Shelley K., Jonathan M. White and Kathleen O. Korgen (Eds.) 2015. Sociologists in Action on Inequalities: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality. Sage Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483368764
  • Nitkin, Mindell Reiss, Shelley K. White, and Mary Shapiro. 2015. 鈥淧rofessional Skills as Cornerstones of Liberal Education: Moving Students from Theory to Action.鈥澛College Teaching. 64(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2015.1062742
  • Leiter, Valerie and Shelley K. White. 2015. 鈥淓nmeshed in Controversy: Claims about the Risks of聽Vaginal Mesh Devices.鈥澛Health, Risk and Society. 17(1): 64-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2014.1000835
  • White, Shelley K. and Mindell Reiss Nitkin. 2014. 鈥淐reating a Transformative Learning聽Experience: Immersing Students in an Intensive, Interdisciplinary Learning Environment.鈥澛International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning聽8(2): Article 3.
  • Korgen, Kathleen O., Jonathan M. White and Shelley K. White (Eds.) 2014. Sociologists in Action: Sociology, Social Change and Social Justice (2nd Ed). Sage Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781506335490
  • Wiist, William, Kathy Barker, Neil Arya, Jon Rohde, Martin Donohoe, Shelley White, Pauline Lubens, Gerry Gorman, Amy Hagopian. 2014. 鈥淭he Role of Public Health in the Prevention of War: Rationale and Competencies.鈥澛American Journal of Public Health聽104(6): e34-e47. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301778
  • White, Shelley K., Bernard Lown and Jon Rohde. 2013. 鈥淲ar or Health? Assessing Public Health Education and the Potential for Primary Prevention.鈥澛Public Health Reports聽128(6): 568-573. https://doi.org/10.1177/003335491312800618
  • White, Shelley K. 2012. 鈥淧ublic Health at a Crossroads: Assessing Teaching on Economic Globalization as a Social Determinant of Health.鈥澛Critical Public Health聽22(3): 281-295. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2012.685052
  • Cermak, Michael J., Jonathan A. Christiansen, Amy C. Finnegan, Aideen P. Gleeson, Shelley K. White, Darcy K. Leach. 2011. 鈥淒isplacing Activism? The Impact of International Service Trips on Understandings of Social Change.鈥澛Education, Citizenship and Social Justice聽6(1): 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746197910397915
  • Korgen, Kathleen O., Jonathan M. White and Shelley K. White. 2011. 鈥淚ntroduction: Sociologists聽in Action: Sociology, Social Change and Social Justice.鈥 Special issue introduction:聽Theory in Action聽4(2):1-4. https://transformativestudies.org/publications/theory-in-action-the-journal-of-tsi/past-issues/volume-4-number-2-april-2011/
  • Amy C. Finnegan, Adam P. Saltsman and Shelley K. White. 2010. "Negotiating Politics and聽Culture: The Utility of Human Rights for Activist Organizing in the United States."聽Journal of Human Rights Practice聽2(3): 307-333. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huq009
  • White, Shelley K. 2006. 鈥淧athologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the聽Poor鈥 by Paul Farmer.聽Contemporary Sociology, 35(1): 20-21. (Invited Book Review) https://www.jstor.org/stable/i30045646