Rachel Best

Rachel Best is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan. She studies political responses to social problems, focusing on inequalities created by advocacy and culture. Her book, Common Enemies: Disease Campaigns in America, argues that when Americans come together to fight social problems, they focus their largest efforts on diseases. Fighting one disease at a time has unintended consequences for health policy. Her current research uses computational methods to explore the relationship between disease stigma, advocacy, and policy outcomes.