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.