Nancy E. Adler, Ph.D. is the Lisa and John Pritzker Professor of Psychology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at UCSF and Director of the Center for Health and Community. She received her BA from Wellesley College and her PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard University.
Adler’s early research examined the utility and limitations of rational choice decision models for understanding reproductive health behaviors, including adolescents’ use and non-use of contraception and responses to unwanted pregnancy and to infertility treatment . Growing out of her experience in the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Health-Promoting and Disease-Preventing Behavior, she established the MacArthur Research Network on SES and Health. She engaged leading researchers from a wide range of disciplines in identifying social, psychological and biological mechanisms by which SES influences health. Her current work includes health effects of subjective social status and interventions to reduce health inequalities.
Adler co-directed the UCSF-UC Berkeley site for the RWJF Health and Society Program and directed an NIMH T32 Fellowship Program, Psychology and Medicine. She currently heads the National Program Office for the RWJF Evidence for Action Program. Adler has served on various advisory committees, including the Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH and the Visiting Committee for the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). Adler received the Chancellor’s Award for Advancement of Women, George Sarlo Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, and the Lloyd Holly Smith award from UCSF; the James McKeen Cattell Award from the American Psychological Society (APS); Distinguished Scientific Award for the Application of Psychology from the American Psychological Association (APA); the Marion Spencer Fay Award from the Institute for Women’s Health Leadership; the David Rall Medal from the National Academy of Medicine, and the Medal for Distinguished Contributions to Biomedical Research from the New York Academy of Medicine.