Susan Weller, PhD

Professor and Director, Research Program

Dr. Susan Weller joined the Department of Family Medicine in 1998 and currently serves as the Director of the Research Program.  Her role in the Department of Family Medicine focuses on faculty research development.  Dr. Weller also serves as professor in the Social Epidemiology Program in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health.
 
Dr. Weller earned her PhD degree in Social Science in 1980 from the University of California, Irvine.  She served as an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine from 1980 to 1983.  From 1983 to 1988, she served on the faculty in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and the Graduate Group in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  She joined the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1988.
 
Dr. Weller is nationally and internationally recognized for her expertise in the area of research methods and is skilled in both qualitative and quantitative methods.  Her research interests span both medical (diabetes, AIDS, and asthma) and social science topics (social support, stress, and folk illnesses).   Dr. Weller is the co-developer of the Cultural Consensus Model (with Romney and Batchelder), a mathematical method to estimate cultural beliefs.  She has published monographs on data collection methods and on correspondence analysis.  She has authored or co-authored more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as a number of book chapters and editorials and presented her work at national and international conferences.  Her research has been primarily funded by NSF.  She has served on expert scientific advisory committees and boards, including the consensus panel to summarize research concerning condoms and sexually transmitted diseases. She currently serves on the editorial board of Field Methods.