Emma Zang

Dr. Emma Zang is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Biostatistics at Yale University, affiliated with the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. She holds a PhD in Public Policy from Duke University and specializes in demography, quantitative methodology, and population health. Her research focuses on Bayesian statistical methods for modeling life trajectories, the impact of climate change on health outcomes (e.g., air pollution effects on academic performance and cognitive decline), and socioeconomic determinants of health disparities. She collaborates with interdisciplinary teams at YSPH and the Wu Tsai Institute, addressing topics like wildfire smoke exposure, cognitive trajectories in aging populations, and social disadvantage indices.

Education: PhD in Public Policy, Duke University (2019).

Research Interests: Dr. Zang’s work bridges demography and public health, emphasizing Bayesian approaches to life course analysis, environmental health risks (wildfires, ozone), and policy impacts on health equity. She explores intersections of race, gender, and socioeconomic status in health outcomes, with recent studies on childcare during the pandemic and upward mobility’s health effects.

Publications Trends: Her articles address environmental exposures, cognitive aging, and social determinants of health. Recent work highlights disparities in mortality linked to geographic disadvantage and the role of time use patterns in successful aging.

Collaborations: Active partnerships with researchers at YSPH, including Kai Chen (environmental health) and Thomas Gill (gerontology). Her lab integrates data science with demographic analysis to inform public health policy.

Labs/Teams: Part of the Climate Change and Health Initiative at YSPH and the Wu Tsai Institute’s interdisciplinary projects on environmental health.