Elisabeth Root

Deputy Director, Gender, Vulnerability, and Health Equity

Elisabeth Root leads a team that investigates the dynamic, cumulative, and interrelated factors that give rise to health inequities, primarily those affecting women and children. The team conducts research on the social, economic, and structural vulnerabilities that influence health and health behaviors including key aspects of health systems that lead to more equitable provision of care.

Before joining IDM in 2021, Elisabeth was a professor of geography and epidemiology at The Ohio State University and served on the leadership team at the Institute for Population Research. Her research focused on the long-term and intergenerational effects of health and development programs on women and children in low- and middle-income countries, spatiotemporal patterns of mortality and disease, and modeling the contributions of social determinants to health and well-being.

Elisabeth holds a Ph.D. in health and medical geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.