Rebekah Israel Cross

Assistant Professor
Department of Public Health Sciences and the College

Rebekah Israel Cross’s research uses quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how structural inequality impacts health. Her work involves conceptualizing and measuring racism; unpacking the relationships between racism, housing, and health; and illuminating how the field of public health perpetuates racism.

Her work has been published in Social Science & Medicine, Social Science & Medicine—Population Health, Ethnicity and Disease, Black Women and Public Health, and Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional.

Cross earned BA degrees in sociology and political science with a minor in social economic justice from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by an MA in sociology from American University. She received a PhD in community health sciences with a doctoral minor in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health behavior and maternal and child health.