Rachel Donnelly

Associate Professor of Sociology

Rachel Donnelly is Associate Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University. Her research primarily focuses on the individual and contextual determinants of mental and physical health across the life course. For example, in one line of research, she aims to understand how individual-level experiences related to work and economic circumstances intersect with state policy contexts to shape mental and physical health outcomes. Another area of research examines how long-term exposure to precarious work – work that is uncertain, unstable, and insecure – undermines family relationships and health outcomes for older adults. Central to her research agenda is an emphasis on the processes that create and sustain inequities in health by gender and race/ethnicity. Her research has been supported by the National Institute on Aging and the National Science Foundation and published in journals such as Social Forces, The Milbank Quarterly, Demography, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior.