Moriah McSharry McGrath is an interdisciplinary social scientist cross-trained in public health and urban planning. The central theme of her work is understanding how health inequities are rooted in space. Key topics include housing, land use conflict, gentrification and historic preservation, environmental justice, resource extraction, substance use, communicable disease, and sexuality and gender.
Dr. McGrath’s work is informed by feminist, queer, and critical race perspectives and she is especially interested in qualitative and participatory research methods. As an educator, she emphasizes the application of scholarly ideas to confront community challenges.
During her 2023-2024 sabbatical, she served as a visiting faculty member for the School for International Training, traveling around the world with students studying climate change on the International Honors Program. Prior to joining PSU, she was on the faculty of the Public Health Program at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. She spent several years in the public sector as a Research Analyst for the Multnomah County Health Department, building on her experience as an academic researcher.
Dr. McGrath also has extensive experience in international and intercultural education, having taught or been a learner in Brazil, Ecuador, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, and Vietnam.