Justin Denney

Justin Denney is the William Julius Wilson Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology at Washington State University (WSU). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado (2010). His research focuses on how family structures and environmental contexts influence health disparities, mortality, and socioeconomic inequality. Key areas include racial/ethnic disparities in healthcare access, food insecurity dynamics, and the role of neighborhood environments on child and adult health outcomes.

His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health Health Disparities Program, the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, and the Houston Endowment. Denney has received two IPUMS Research Awards (2020, 2018) for his contributions to demographic data analysis. He collaborates across disciplines to address complex health inequities, particularly in marginalized populations.

Recent research highlights include studies on Alzheimer’s disease spatial disparities in Washington State, racial differences in sleep-mortality relationships, and the intersection of sexual orientation with mental health and substance use. His projects frequently integrate geographic information systems (GIS) and multi-level statistical modeling to analyze large-scale health datasets.

Denney’s publications span journals like Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Social Science & Medicine, and Social Problems. He maintains an active research agenda examining how socioecological factors—family dynamics, neighborhood conditions, and systemic inequities—shape population health outcomes across the life course.