Amber Smith

Doctoral Student in Sociology
Amber Smith
William James Hall
ambersmith@g.harvard.edu

Research Interests: Social Determinants of Health; Medical Sociology; Maternal & Reproductive Health; Reproduction; Inequality and Health Disparities; Demography; Social Network Analysis; Quantitative and Mixed Methods

Amber Smith is a PhD student in Sociology at Harvard. She earned her BA in Sociology (concentration in Medical Sociology) with a Minor in Global Health at Duke University. Her honors thesis was titled “Zip Code Matters: A Social Network Analysis of U.S. State-Based Abortion Care Access Over Time.” As an undergraduate, Amber conducted research with the Duke Center for Global Reproductive Health and research teams in Kisumu, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda to assess barriers to the service uptake of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and testing.

As a graduate student, Amber looks forward to diving deeper into her passion within maternal and reproductive health. She is interested with studying the interplay of structural racism, structural sexism, and cycles of poverty that contribute to disparities of health outcomes. Amber is particularly passionate about conceptualizing social determinants of health to best inform equity-centered interventions, especially as it relates to Black Maternal Mortality and abortion restrictions and disparities. She hopes to expand both her quantitative and qualitative methodological skills.

Previous Degrees:
B.A., Sociology (Minor in Global Health), Duke University, 2024