Sean Bruna, PhD
Associate Professor
About
Dr. Bruna is on leave and not taking on additional graduate students.
Dr. Sean Bruna is a tenured professor of medical anthropology and has advised nearly 40 master's and doctoral students. His previous research on patient health and wellness has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the Smithsonian Institution, among others. In addition to research, Dr. Bruna has extensive teaching experience, having taught more than 150 undergraduate/graduate anthropology and health-related theory and method courses.
A Latino scholar, he holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico, where he specialized on chronic disease prevention with minoritized populations on the US - Mexico border.
Dr. Bruna is on leave from Western and serving as a Senior Advisor in the Immediate Office of the Director at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the Biden-Harris Administration.
When not working in D.C., Sean can be found sailing in Charleston, SC, where he lives with his wife, Dr. Heather Fullerton.
Education
- Ph.D. The University of New Mexico, Cultural Anthropology / Linguistics (Focus: Medical Anthropology and Health Policy), 2013
Dissertation: "Sowing Seeds for the Future with Tigua History and Tradition”: Diabetes Prevention and Management at Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo - M.A. University of New Mexico, Cultural Anthropology, 2005
- M.A. The University of Chicago, Social Science (Concentration: Federal Indian Law), 2003
Thesis: Issues of Tigua Recognition: Negotiating Legal and Ethnic Identity on the U.S. - Mexico Border - B.A. The University of Chicago, Anthropology & Latin American Studies, 1999
Research Interests
- Medical Anthropology
- US Health Policy
- Chronic Disease Prevention
- Disability Studies
- Patient Safety
- Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR)