PCH: Faculty

Barbara Burns McGrath, RN, PhD Research Associate Professor Psychosocial & Community Health Box 357263 University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195-7263 Email Address: bbmcgrat@u.washington.edu

Barbara Burns McGrath is a nurse and medical anthropologist on the research faculty in the School of Nursing with adjunct appointments in the Departments of Anthropology and in Epidemiology. She is also on the faculty of the Institute of Public Health Genetics in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and is director of the Gender Disparities Core of the Center for Women's Health and Gender Research. General research focus includes a description of cultural variation in response to illness; investigation of the influence of culture in the creation of meaning; examination of the role of science and technology in the health of populations; and the application of ethnographic inquiry methods in the study of health and illness.

Topical interests have included issues surrounding death and dying, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and the social and cultural implications of the Human Genome Project. Fieldwork in the Kingdom of Tonga has led to a program of research with the U.S. Pacific Island community in the Seattle area. Dr. McGrath is Principal Investigator of Project Talanoa, an NIH funded study developing a community based HIV prevention program with local Samoan and Tongan teenagers and adolescents. A recently completed research project in collaboration with a genetic epidemiologist examined knowledge and attitudes toward genetics among a sample of Japanese Americans and Samoan Americans. Further research to investigate the interplay of cultural meanings and family history of diabetes among U.S. Pacific Islanders is planned.

Recent Research Pacific Island Youth Survey. Royalty Research Fund. HIV/AIDS Prevention and pacific Islander Adolescents. National Institutes of Health. Assessing Genetic Knowledge and Attitudes in Two Populations. Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health Intramural research Program, UW.

Links

Center for Women's Health and Gender Research Institute of Public Health Genetics - UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine Department of Anthropology

Current Projects

• Biobehavioral Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program (Mentor)
• Center for Women's Health & Gender Research (Key Personnel)
• Determining Content Validity of a Stage Model Behavior Change Instrument (Principal Investigator)