Malia Jones

Malia Jones is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in spatially explicit approaches to health disparities, vaccine hesitancy, and social determinants of health. She teaches Introduction to Public Health in the Community & Environmental Health and Global Health majors.

• Ph.D., Public Health, UCLA (2012)
• Master of Public Health, UCLA (2008)
• B.A., Anthropology & Philosophy, American University (1999)

Her research explores how geographic and social clusters influence health outcomes, particularly in rural and urban contexts, and she investigates the impact of social media health messaging through her role as Director of Science for Those Nerdy Girls, a science communication collaborative.

Recent publications focus on rural health disparities during the pandemic, vaccine policy impacts, and geospatial health analysis. She collaborates on topics including infectious disease modeling, environmental justice, and health communication.

Professor Jones’ work spans demography, public health, and science communication, with an emphasis on bridging academic research and public understanding of health issues through social media initiatives.

She has co-authored studies on vaccine exemption policies, neighborhood health effects, and information needs during public health crises, often employing geospatial and longitudinal analytical methods.