Mark C. Pachucki

Dr. Pachucki is a sociologist who investigates phenomena at the intersection of culture, social determinants of health, and social network dynamics. While it is commonly accepted that culture and social context reciprocally shape our health, an expanded understanding of how the structure and meanings of relationships can affect individuals' health behaviors is aided by perspectives from computational social science. If we can better understand how individuals are connected during and across different stages of their life, we gain insight into changes in health behaviors and social status, as well as disparities in these outcomes at the interpersonal and population level. He was trained under an interdisciplinary social science model that prioritizes a “right to health” and that sees many of the cumulative disadvantages that emerge from intersecting group-based differences as unjust and avoidable.