Christine Makosky Daley, PhD, MA, SM

Dr. Christine Makosky Daley is an applied medical anthropologist, mixed methodologist, and implementation scientist with a focus on innovations in community-based participatory research in marginalized communities to improve health equity. Prior to coming to Lehigh, she was at the University of Kansas Medical Center for 16 years, where she led creation of the Center for American Indian Community Health, serving as the Director for over a decade. Her research focused on reducing disparities in Indigenous communities in the United States through community interventions for healthy living, including tobacco cessation, weight control, cancer screening, improving indoor environmental health, and more. As a methodologist, she focused on numerous communities, including rural, urban safety-net, refugee, and children with medical complexity, among others.

Since coming to Lehigh in 2020, Dr. Daley’s research has begun to focus on the intersection of culture and medicine or biology as it relates to medical mysteries, including Morgellons Disease, Near-Death Experiences, spontaneous human combustion, and cases of demonic possession. She examines these from the perspectives of the patients, as well as medical providers and healers, including both allopathic providers and individuals practicing what is often called complementary and alternative medicine. In addition, her research examines the health implications of interactions with paranormal phenomena, such as ghost ickness and alien abduction. She is the co-host of Beyond the Human, a podcast dedicated to anthropological understandings of the paranormal (patreon.com/beyondthehuman).

Education

PhD in Applied Medical Anthropology, University of Connecticut (2004)

SM in Health and Social Behavior, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (2002)

MA in Medical Anthropology, Arizona State University (1998)

BA in Anthropology, Douglass College, Rutgers University (1996)

Areas of Research and Publications

Community-based participatory research

Mixed methodology

Medical mysteries

Health and paranormal phenomena

Indigenous health equity

Awards and Honors

2017: University of Kansas Cancer Center Director’s Award for Bridging Health Disparities

2016: University of Kansas Medical Center Diversity & Inclusion Award

2013: University of Kansas Medical Center Faculty Award for Scholarship in Community Engagement

2012: Fellow, Society for Applied Anthropology

2010-2014: Charter Member, Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health NIH Study Section

2010: William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence

2008: Kansas Health Foundation Excellence in Public Health Teaching Award

2006: Co-Investigator, Partnerships in Prevention Award, Native American Tobacco Cessation Curriculum, Oklahoma City Area Indian Health Summit, Indian Health Service

2005-2012: National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Scholar

Courses