Public Health
Public Health / Emeritus Faculty

Emeritus Faculty

  • Professor Emeritus of Public Health

    Joyce Millen

    Biography

    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.

    Education

    • Ph.D. University of Connecticut, Department of Anthropology, 2003
    • M.P.H. University of Connecticut Medical Center, 1994
    • B.A. Tulane University, Department of Political Science, 1984

    Accomplishments

    Select Honors and Service Awards:

    • 2020-23 State of Oregon Office of Refugee Resettlement Award (3) for the Creation of Global Partners for Student Success (GPSS) Tutoring Program for Newly Resettled Refugee Youth in Salem, OR
    • 2017 American Anthropological Association/ Oxford University Press Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology
    • 2017 Willamette University Mortar Board Professor of the Year
    • 2009 National Science Foundation Senior Research Award ($442,100)
    • 2008 The Arnold L. and Lois S. Graves Award in the Humanities
    • 2006 Willamette University Mortar Board Honorable Mention for Professor of the Year

    Previous:

    • 1995 Institute for Health and Social Justice Fellowship, Partners In Health
    • 1994 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant
    • 1993 Fulbright Scholarship for Dissertation Research
    • 1992 Africanist Research Award, Division of International Affairs, University of
      Connecticut
    • 1990 Merit Scholarship Award, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of
      Connecticut
    • 1988 African Food Systems Initiative Fellowship, United States Peace Corps
    • 1984 Tulane University, Coordinator of the Year Award for service as founder and
      coordinator of the Hunger Action Team of Tulane (HATT)

    Professional Work

    April 2024: State of Oregon Sexual Health Education Research Symposium and Film (forthcoming)

    October 2024: Cultural Competency Continuing Medical Education Handbook for Healthcare Providers of Marion and Polk Counties, Oregon. Co-Authored with Willamette Graduate, Mackenzie Johnson.

    Documentary Case Study Film Series:

    2015-16 Millen, Joyce and Amadou Fofana. Bringing Resources Home: Diaspora Efforts to Improve the Health and Well Being of Communities of Origin.

    2014-15 Millen, Joyce and Amadou Fofana. Done Waiting: When African States Fail to Deliver, Afropolitans are Stepping In. Available online: http://willamette.edu/offices/isa-cgc/index.html

    2014-15 Millen, Joyce, Amadou Fofana and Joseph Campbell. Integration and Determination, The Case of Danthiady. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osEjIbRLjiQ

    2014-15 Millen, Joyce, Amadou Fofana and Joseph Campbell. Soninke Solidarity and the Paradox of Forgotten Senegal. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nnsud6xjMI

    Books Authored:

    Irwin, Alexander, Joyce Millen, and Dorothy Fallows. Global AIDS: Myths and Facts, Tools for Fighting the AIDS Pandemic. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2003. (also in Spanish and Japanese)

    Books Edited:

    Kim, Jim, Joyce V. Millen, Alec Irwin and John Gershman, eds. Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2000. (peer reviewed in at least 24 major journals, including several European, Latin American and African journals)