Current Faculty

Michelle Stransky, Ph.D.

Lecturer, Community Health

Biography

Michelle L. Stransky received her Master's degree and Ph.D. in Sociology with a concentration in health and illness from the University of New Hampshire. She then completed a postdoctoral research associateship at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire. In addition to working at Tufts, Dr. Stransky also currently holds a position as affiliated research faculty with the Social Science Applied Research Center at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Dr. Stransky's work focuses on access to health care and health care utilization among underserved populations, specifically people with disabilities and complex health issues, across the lifespan. Currently, she is examining these outcomes among adults with communication disabilities with a team of scholars from the fields of medicine and speech and language therapy. Of particular interest in all of her work is access to and report of usual source of care providers, which have been hallmarked as a way to improve overall health and health care outcomes as well as reduce costs and fragmentation in the health care system. In this area, Dr. Stransky is currently examining changes in reported access to usual sources of care, their implications for health care outcomes, and the reasons why people report not having usual sources of care. Her work has far-reaching policy implications for improving outcomes among underserved groups and redesigning health care delivery with an eye to patient experiences. Dr. Stransky brings her excitement and nuanced understanding of health, disability, and the health care system into the classroom and when she is working directly with students.