Senior Research Associate
Susan Hunter has a Ph.D. in medical anthropology and will finish her Masters in Architecture SUNY/Buffalo in February 2010, specializing in inclusive design/sustainability. She began working with the IDEA Center as a graduate assistant in 2007, and was named a Senior Research Associate with the Center in May 2009. In that position, she is directing the Center’s Aging in Place in Rural Areas Project and a National Endowment on the Arts funded “Bridging the Gap Project” aimed at curriculum development the Schools of Architecture of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She is also developing the Center’s home modification program.
Dr. Hunter is medical anthropologist, demographer, planner, and public health expert who has worked on health and HIV/AIDS issues in 31 countries, including the United States, over the past 20 years. In addition to residential and short term working experience in Africa and Asia, Hunter has helped key international organizations formulate policy on the epidemic, including UNAIDS, UNICEF, USAID, and several large non-governmental organizations. Dr. Hunter has been team leader on national assessments of the impact of HIV/AIDS on families and children in 20 countries. In 2006, she worked with UNAIDS in preparation for the UN General Assembly meeting on universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and on a global evaluation of the British Government’s HIV/AIDS programming. In 2007 she was part of a strategic planning team to develop USAID’s regional HIV/AIDS plan for the West Africa region, and in 2008 led a national team studying the social and cultural determinants of poverty in Zambia. Dr. Hunter was principal author of the first two editions of the international orphan demographic and policy study, Children on the Brink (1997 and 2000, published by USAID, UNAIDS, and the US Census Bureau), and published Reshaping Societies: HIV/AIDS and Social Change in 2000. She’s authored three popular books on AIDS published by Palgrave/Macmillan: Black Death: AIDS in Africa (2003); AIDS in Asia: a Continent in Peril (2005); and AIDS in America (2006).
