Zoua M. Vang, PhD

Dr. Vang is the founding director of the Maternal Child Health Equity & Safety (MatCHES) Lab. She is the Meta Schroeder Beckner Outreach Professor and holds a joint appointment as a Professor of Civil Society and Community Studies in the School of Human Ecology and as an Integrated Specialist in the Ecology of Healthy Communities at the UW Division of Extension’s Health & Well-Being Institute. Reflecting her interdisciplinary scholarship, Dr. Vang is also an Affiliate of the Division of Reproductive and Population Health, Dept of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW-Madison. She maintains international collaborations and active international research projects as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at McGill University and an Investigator of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Quebec, Canada.

Dr. Vang received her BA in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and her MA and PhD in Sociology from Harvard University. Her areas of research expertise include: maternal-child health, Indigenous health, racism and discrimination as social determinants of wellness, international migration and immigrant/refugee health, and community-based participatory research. Trained as a mixed-method researcher, Dr. Vang uses both qualitative, quantitative and participatory methodologies in her studies.

Dr. Vang self-identifies as a settler of color, former refugee, mother, beef jerky enthusiast, and urban backyard homesteader in search of kindred spirits and a life well lived.