Sera Young

Sera Young is an associate professor of anthropology and global health at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. She has dedicated her career to understanding how women, especially in low-resource settings, cope to preserve their health and that of their families. Professor Young’s current research is focused on quantifying human experiences with problems with water and unpacking their consequences for nutrition, health, and well-being. High-resolution, globally comparable, gender-disaggregated data have been helpful in other sectors (e.g., the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale). However, globally comparable experiential data have not existed for water. To fill this gap, Dr. Young led a large multidisciplinary team to develop the first cross-culturally equivalent way of measuring water access and use at the household and individual levels. These scales have been used by 100+ organizations in more than 50 countries to understand who is water insecure in a more precise and comprehensive way, to understand how water insecurity shapes outcomes across many sectors, to make decisions about resource allocation, and to evaluate the impact of investments in water. Professor Young has coauthored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications; awards include the Margaret Mead Award for her book Craving Earth, an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, and a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship.