Alexis A Merdjanoff
Alexis A Merdjanoff
Director of the Environmental Public Health Program
Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences
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Professional overview
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Dr. Alexis Merdjanoff is the Director of the Environmental Public Health Program and Assistant Professor in Social and Behavioral Sciences at New York University’s School of Global Public Health. She is a public health sociologist who explores how population health is affected by exposure to natural hazards, including hurricanes, floods, extreme heat and wildfires. Dr. Merdjanoff is particularly interested in how social inequalities shape the impact of hazards on health, recovery, and resilience for vulnerable populations. To do so, she collects and analyzes survey and interview data to form a holistic understanding of how individuals and communities are affected by these events. While disasters have traditionally been thought of as finite phenomena—with a majority of research focused on the immediate consequences—her research reveals how environmental stressors can lead to economic, emotional, and health burdens long after an event has passed. By focusing on the long-term effects of disasters, she has been able to determine why some survivors are able to recover quickly while others remain mired for months or years.
As Director of Research for the Population Impact, Recovery and Resilience (PiR2) research program, she is currently working on several studies, including the longitudinal Katrina@10 Program, the Sandy Child and Family Health (S-CAFH) Study, and SCALE-UP East Boston to answer questions related to improving the health and well-being of populations exposed to disasters and climate change. More recently, her work has explored the post-disaster resilience of older adults and how older adults can successfully age in high-risk coastal areas. Using in-depth interviews, she aims to identify the resources that older adults need to be resilient, including the social and physical infrastructures needed to successfully prepare for and recover from acute and chronic natural hazards. Her goal is to understand how older adults can successfully adapt to and prepare for coastal erosion, frequent flooding, heatwaves, and disasters.
Dr. Merdjanoff frequently engages in mixed-methods research, including semi-structured in-depth interviewing, focus groups, and survey analysis. Trained as a sociologist, she believes in a holistic approach to answering questions surrounding health, disaster exposure, and recovery. Dr. Merdjanoff teaches several public health courses including, “Qualitative & Field Methods in Global Public Health,” and “Global Issues in Social & Behavioral Health.”
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Education
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BS, Sociology (Magna Cum Laude), New York University, New York, NYMA, Sociology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJPhD, Sociology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
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Honors and awards
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Innovator Program Fellow, National Center for Atmospheric Research (2019)Butler-Williams Scholar, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (2019)Aging and Rural Health Research Award, American Public Health Association, Aging and Public Health Section (2017)Best Dissertation in Mental Health, American Sociological Association, Sociology of Mental Health section (2016)Anne Foner Dissertation Prize, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University (2016)Matilda White Riley Published Article Award for Outstanding Journal Article, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University (2013)Weather & Society Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) Fellow (2011)Graduate School Special Study Award, Rutgers University (2011)
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Areas of research and study
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Aging and the Life CourseDisaster Impact and RecoveryHousing StabilityMental HealthMixed-Methods ResearchSocial BehaviorsSocial Determinants of Health
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Publications
Publications
A Multi-Stage Dyadic Qualitative Analysis to Disentangle How Dietary Behaviors of Asian American Young Adults are Influenced by Family
Exploring access to critical health services for older adults in rural America from 1990 to 2020
Adverse Effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Amid Cumulative Disasters: A Qualitative Analysis of the Experiences of Children and Families
Association of Victimization by Sex among Public Facing Bus and Subway Transit Workers, New York City
Temporal Trends of Early COVID-19 Infections in New York City Transit Workers and Residents: March 01, 2020–May 02, 2020
The influence of risk perception on disaster recovery: A case study of new Jersey families impacted by hurricane sandy
‘We know what he likes, even if he doesn’t know’: how the children of South Asian immigrants characterize and influence the diets of their parents
Associations Between COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Socio-Spatial Factors in NYC Transit Workers 50 Years and Older
Evaluating the healthfulness of Asian American young adult dietary behaviors and its association with family structure: Disaggregated results from NHIS 2015
Examining the effects of cumulative environmental stressors on Gulf Coast child and adolescent health
AbstractMeltzer, G. Y., Merdjanoff, A. A., Xu, S., Gershon, R., Emrich, C. T., & Abramson, D. M. (n.d.).Publication year
2023Journal title
Population and EnvironmentVolume
45Issue
3AbstractThis study examines how community-level cumulative environmental stress affects child and adolescent emotional distress and chronic health conditions both directly and indirectly through stressors at the household, family, and individual levels. Data comes from the Women and their Children’s Health (WaTCH) Study, which sought to understand the health implications of exposure to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) among a cohort of 596 mothers with children ages 10 to 17 in southeastern Louisiana. Community-level environmental stress was measured using a newly developed geospatial index. Household-level stressors included previous hurricane impacts, impacts of DHOS, degree of financial difficulty, and degree of housing physical decay. Family stressors included maternal depression, self-rated physical health, and degree of parenting stress. Child stress was based on perceived stress; child mental health was based on serious emotional disturbance; and child physical health was based on diagnosis of chronic illness. Structural equation modeling used weighted least squares means and variance and theta parameterization. Results showed a significant negative direct path between community-level cumulative environmental stress and child/adolescent serious emotional disturbance and chronic illness. However, the indirect relationship through household, family, and individual-level stressors was significant and positive for both child/adolescent serious emotional disturbance and chronic illness. These findings point to the centrality of the household and family in determining child and adolescent physical and mental health outcomes in communities exposed to frequent disasters and ongoing environmental stressors.Impact of Disasters on Older Adult Cancer Outcomes: A Scoping Review
Informal Modes of Social Support among Residents of the Rural American West during the COVID-19 Pandemic☆
Mental health in rural america during COVID-19 and beyond
Advancing Interdisciplinary and Convergent Science for Communities: Lessons Learned through the NCAR Early-Career Faculty Innovator Program
Development of an Integrated Approach to Virtual Mind-Mapping: Methodology and Applied Experiences to Enhance Qualitative Health Research
Disasters, Displacement, and Housing Instability: Estimating Time to Stable Housing 13 Years after Hurricane Katrina
Elevated serious psychological distress, economic disruption, and the COVID-19 pandemic in the nonmetropolitan American West
Examining the Dose–Response Relationship: Applying the Disaster Exposure Matrix to Understand the Mental Health Impacts of Hurricane Sandy
Mapping drivers of second-generation South Asian American eating behaviors using a novel integration of qualitative and social network analysis methods
“Moving Forward”: Older Adult Motivations for Group-Based Physical Activity After Cancer Treatment
Adverse Physical and Mental Health Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill among Gulf Coast Children: An Environmental Justice Perspective
Anticipated mental health consequences of COVID-19 in a nationally-representative sample: Context, coverage, and economic consequences
Impact of occupational exposure to COVID-19 on the physical and mental health of an essential workgroup: New York City transit workers
Scales and sensitivities in climate vulnerability, displacement, and health
The effects of cumulative natural disaster exposure on adolescent psychological distress
Meltzer, G. Y., Zacher, M., Merdjanoff, A., Do, M. P., Pham, N. N. K., & Abramson, D. (n.d.).Publication year
2021Journal title
Journal of Applied Research on ChildrenVolume
12Issue
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