Joyce V Millen

Joyce V. Millen has worked as an applied medical anthropologist for more than three decades, focusing most of her research and public engagement on historic and current processes that lead to ongoing health inequities in the United States and beyond. She has conducted extensive ethnomedical research associated with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in Senegal, West Africa and has devoted considerable time to examining health legacies of colonialism, African diaspora medical giving, trauma in refugee resettlement, sexual health education, and more. Millen has received numerous grants and awards that have enabled her to engage students directly in her research and applied projects in North American, West African, and European countries. An ardent proponent of experiential learning, Millen is known for encouraging her students to apply for their own independent research grants that enable them to explore beyond the classroom and beyond their comfort zones so they may better understand the complexity and diversity of our contemporary world. She grew up in the Washington D.C. area and attended one of the most ethnically diverse high schools in the country. She is married to a globe-trotting conservationist, physician, hiker, and birder and is mom to a lovely, also globally-engaged, young adult daughter.