Anne Elizabeth Cafer

Dr. Anne Elizabeth Cafer is an Associate Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Education and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Mississippi. She holds leadership roles in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology within the College of Liberal Arts. Her academic journey includes a BSc in Molecular Biology and Sociology from Northwest Missouri State University, an MA in Anthropology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a PhD in Rural Sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Dr. Cafer co-founded the Community First Research Center for Wellbeing and Creative Achievement (UM CREW) and directed the University of Mississippi’s Center for Population Studies (CPS). These roles exemplify her commitment to leveraging institutional resources for community resilience through community-based participatory research (CBPR). Her research focuses on theoretical and practical applications of community resilience, particularly in rural contexts, addressing systemic barriers in health, food security, and development.

Her work integrates interdisciplinary approaches, emphasizing equity and adaptive capacity. Key areas include food prescription programs, pandemic impacts on student parents, and global food security through her Borlaug Fellowship. She has also contributed to policy recommendations for USDA programs and explored rural healthcare challenges like naloxone accessibility.

Dr. Cafer’s accolades include the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship and Borlaug Fellowship in Global Food Security. Her research has led to publications on topics ranging from water system challenges in Jackson, MS, to international development rhetoric in emerging economies. She advocates for multidisciplinary collaboration in universities and has developed programs like College2Youth to engage undergraduate researchers in community projects.

Her current initiatives address health disparities through food affordability studies and resilience frameworks for community development practitioners. Dr. Cafer actively bridges academic research with actionable solutions to empower underserved communities in Mississippi and globally.