Valerie Leiter
Professor and Director of the Bachelor's Program in Public Health
Val Leiter teaches courses on medical sociology, food, drugs, and epidemiology—these topics dovetail with her research on children and youth with disabilities, medicalization, medical devices, and gender and health.
She has received multiple teaching awards, most recently, the Toby Sloane Award for Undergraduate Teaching in 2019 and the Simmons College Dean's Award for Exceptional Undergraduate Advising in 2010.
Val received the Irving K. Zola award for Emerging Scholars in Disability Studies in 2004 for her work on "Parental Activism, Professional Dominance, and Early Childhood Disability." Her first book, Their Time Has Come: Youth with Disabilities on the Cusp of Adulthood, was published in 2012, a result of her William T. Grant Foundation Scholars project on the "Transition to Adulthood Among Youth with Disabilities." The Sociology of Health & Illness: Critical Perspectives (11th edition), co-edited with Peter Conrad, was published in 2023.
She is active in the Society for the Study of Social Problems, where Val has held multiple leadership positions, including Vice President of the Society. On campus, Val is the Director of the Public Health bachelors program.
Val mentors several students each year on their independent research projects. Right now, she is supervising Leila Aydibi's (Biochemistry) senior thesis on the healthcare experiences of Muslim people in Massachusetts. She also mentors students research assistants on her own research projects, and is collaborating with Gracyn Delaune (Sociology) on two papers that examines individuals' use of IUDs for birth control. Students who are interested in doing their own research projects or want to gain research experience addressing women's and reproductive health medical devices are encouraged to email her and make a time to talk.
Education
- PhD, Sociology and Social Policy, Brandeis University, 2001
- A.M., Sociology, Harvard University, 1989
- B.A., Sociology, State University of New York at Albany, 1987
What I Teach
- PH 201 Introduction to Epidemiology
- PH 347 Public Health Senior Seminar
- PH 370 Public Health Internship Seminar
- PH 241 Health, Illness and Society
- SOCI 285 Drugs and Society
- SOCI 321 Sociology of Food
Research/Creative Activities
Val's recent work examines the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's regulation of women's health medical devices. She has co-authored two articles on vaginal mesh for female urinary incontinence, "Enmeshed in Controversy: Claims About the Risks of Vaginal Mesh Devices," and "Adverse Event Reports Associated with Vaginal Mesh: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis" (co-authored with a Simmons alumna), and also co-authored an article with two Simmons alumnae on "Regulatory Scripting: Stakeholder Participation in Food and Drug Administration Medical Device Advisory Meetings." Currently, she is examining the use of medical devices in human reproduction.