Assistant Professor

Dr. Alexis Merdjanoff is an Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at New York University’s School of Global Public Health and Director of Research at the Center for Public Health Disaster Science. She is a public health sociologist who explores how population health is affected by exposure to disasters and climate change. The goal of her research is to understand the factors that shape the preparedness, recovery, and resilience of individuals and communities exposed to acute disasters, including floods, hurricanes, and wildfires, as well as slow onset climate disasters such as sea-level rise and coastal erosion.

Dr. Merdjanoff has extensive experience studying the long-term recovery and resilience of populations exposed to disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, as well as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. She is currently working on research funded by the National Institute on Aging to examine how older adults can successfully age in high-risk environmental areas. The goal is to develop an intervention that increases the disaster resilience of older adults. She holds a B.S. in Sociology from New York University, and M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University.

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