Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society

Shannon Monnat Named Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion

Thursday, September 14, 2017, By Renee Levy
Share
appointmentfacultyLerner CenterMaxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Shannon Monnat

Shannon Monnat

Shannon Monnat, a rural demographer and sociologist whose work focuses on public health, joins the faculty of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs as the Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion. Monnat studies health disparities, stratification and inequality, and spatial differences in drug, alcohol and suicide mortality. Her research aims to better understand the current opioid epidemic and other diseases and deaths of despair.

The Lerner Chair is a component of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, established in 2011 with a generous founding gift from Sid Lerner (a 1953 Syracuse University alumnus) and his wife, Helaine. The center’s mission is to improve the health of the community through service, research, education, advocacy and policy. It works together with citizens, students and public health professionals to identify needs, develop programming, and deploy collaborative initiatives. Sid Lerner is a former advertising executive who developed a strong interest in how lifestyle habits contribute to chronic disease.

Monnat says the Lerner Chair is an ideal platform to pursue her interests while impacting local community health issues. “Increasing problems such as disability, obesity, and poor mental health are all issues that affect our long term economic sustainability and well-being as a society,” she says. “The underlying causes of many of these issues are deeply connected. Social scientists are in a prime position to identify those underlying social, economic, and policy-related mechanisms and hopefully identify strategies to mitigate them.”

Monnat, a native of Lowville, New York, adds, “As an Upstate New Yorker, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with local communities on population health issues and drug use. The Lerner Center is really poised to do that kind of work in the community.”

Monnat is author or co-author of more than two-dozen publications, is frequently invited to present at academic conferences, and is regularly sought for commentary by the media. At Maxwell, she will hold an appointment in the Department of Sociology and serve as senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research.

“Shannon Monnat is committed to disciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship that informs, benefits, and influences public policy and the public good,” says David M. Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School. “She brings timely and important research, a public orientation and unbounded energy to the intellectual leadership of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion. As a sociologist with a national reputation, she will be an immediate asset to the Maxwell School and Syracuse University.”

Monnat joins the Maxwell School from Pennsylvania State University, where she was assistant professor of rural sociology and demography and research associate at the Population Research Institute. She previously served as assistant professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her Ph.D. in sociology is from the University at Albany (SUNY), where she received the Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award.

“We know that to achieve good health we need to go beyond the traditional model of health care and public health and reach upstream to identify and address the community issues that play into people’s ability to lead a healthy and productive life,” says Thomas Dennison, faculty director of the Lerner Center. “Shannon’s work looking at the fundamentals of how community conditions influence health will contribute enormously to the Lerner Center’s mission.”

 

 

  • Author

Renee Levy

  • Recent
  • 2022 SCRC Faculty Fellows Program Call for Proposals
    Tuesday, April 13, 2021, By Cristina Hatem
  • New Study From Department of Biology Highlights Ways to Support Students in Virtual Learning Environments
    Tuesday, April 13, 2021, By Dan Bernardi
  • Architecture Student Named to Future100 List in Metropolis Magazine
    Tuesday, April 13, 2021, By Julie Sharkey
  • ‘Putin’s Rules of the Game’
    Tuesday, April 13, 2021, By Lily Datz
  • Important Public Health Update: Barnes Center Will Pause Distribution of J&J Vaccine
    Tuesday, April 13, 2021, By News Staff

More In Health & Society

Roundtable to Explore Vaccine History, Racial Disparities Within the Medical System, and COVID-19 Vaccine Options

The Barnes Center at The Arch, in partnership with the College of Law, COVID Project Management Office, Office of Student Living and Office of Diversity and Inclusion, will host a roundtable on Friday, April 16, at 1 p.m. focused on…

Syracuse University Partners With Syracuse City School District to Provide Pathways to Higher Learning

Syracuse University embraces its commitment to promoting positive change that simultaneously advances knowledge and opportunity for all citizens. A large part of that commitment is providing access to a Syracuse University education to local high school students. In partnership with…

Lender Center for Social Justice Hosts Community Conversation on Race, Disability and Justice

The Lender Center for Social Justice, along with the Center on Disability and Inclusion and the Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series, is bringing the community together for a broad-ranging discussion on Policed Bodies: A Community Conversation on Race, Disability…

Graduate Student Works With Food Policy Council to Combat Rising Food Scarcity Due to COVID

Nel Gaudé worked in kitchens for a decade before now pursuing a master’s degree in food studies. This tangible professional cooking experience gives them insight and allows them to think creatively about issues related to their coursework. After Gaudé was…

Online Master of Social Work Opens Doors to Career Changers, Working Professionals

The School of Social Work will welcome its first cohort of online master’s students in May, and Professor Ken Marfilius is excited. “We are already seeing strong applications for our first cohort of 50 students. I think the COVID-19 pandemic…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.