• pronouns She/her/hers
  • education Master of Social Work, University at Buffalo, SUNY
    Bachelors of Arts, Health and Human Services: Community Mental Health, University at Buffalo, SUNY
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Greer (she/her/hers) is a current third year PhD candidate at Boston University School of Social Work. Her work broadly focuses on the intersection of racial justice, health equity, the built environment, and community engaged research. Her independent research currently focuses on affective urbanism, municipal drug policy, and the use of puppetry in social work research and practice. The first project seeks to understand how racialized policies and practices have shaped how urban spaces are designed, and how people’s interaction with these racialized spaces impacts their health, sense of place, and ownership of their community. The second project funded through her National Institutes of Drug Addiction Supplement Award focuses on understanding how municipal policies impact the implementation of evidence-based harm reduction strategies to address the opioid crisis. The third project focuses on exploring how puppetry specifically hand puppetry, can be used in social work research and practice to discuss pressing social matters. In addition to these projects, her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Drug Addiction, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and BU Clinical & Translational Science Institute. She also serves as an adjunct instructor for the University at Buffalo School of Social Work.

Website: greerahamilton.com

Areas of Expertise

Community Engagement; Health and Public Health; Racial Justice; Social Policy and Poverty

Courses

WP 705 Mental Health and Social Policy
HB 735 Racial Justice and Cultural Oppression
MP 759 Communities & Organizations
MP 786 Health Equity

Publications

Chatterjee, A., Glasgow, L., Bullard, M., Sabir, M., Hamilton, G.A., Chassler, D., Stevens-Watkins, D. J., Walters, S. T., Goddard-Eckrich, D., Rodgers, E., Chaya, J., Rodriguez, S., Gutnick, D., Oga, E., Salsberry, P., Sprague Martinez, L. (2022). Racism and the opioid epidemic can we avoid repeating historical mistakes? The American Journal of Public Health, 112, 204-208. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306572

Sprague Martinez L., Rapkin, B., Young, A., Freisthler, B., Glasgow, L., Hunt, T., Salsberry, P., Oga, E., Bennet-Fallin, A., Plouk, I., Drainoni, M., Freeman, P., Surratt, H., Gulley, J., Hamilton, G., Bowman, P., El-Bassel, N., Battaglia, T. (2020). Community engagement to implement evidence-based practices in the HEALing communities study. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108326

Ely, G. E., Hales, T. W., Jackson, D. L., Maguin, G., & Hamilton, G. (2017a). The undue burden of paying for abortion: An examination of abortion fund cases. Social Work in Health Care, 56(2), 99-114.

Ely, G. E., Hales, T. W., Jackson, D. L., Maguin, G., & Hamilton, G. (2017b). Where are they from and how far must they go? Examining location and travel distance in U.S. abortion fund patients. International Journal of Sexual Health, 29(4), 313-324. doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2017.1316809

Ely, G. E., Hales, T.W., Jackson, D. L., Bowen, E. A., Maguin, E. & Hamilton, G. (2017c). A trauma-informed examination of the hardships experienced by abortion fund patients. Health Care for Women International, 38(11), 1133-1151. doi:10.1080/07399332.2017.1367795

Ely, G. E., Hales, T. W., Jackson, D. L., Maguin, G., & Hamilton, G. (2016). Poverty and the art of financing abortion: and exploration of abortion funding assistance cases in the United States. Contraception, 94(4), 397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2016.07.057

Presentations

Hudda, N., Hamilton, G. A., Meglio, D., Zamore, W., Reisner, E., Durant, J. L. (expected August 2021). Sustainable Air Quality in Near Highway Affordable Housing: A multiple stakeholder engagement study in Somerville, MA. Oral presentation accepted for International Society of Exposure Science.

Tang Yan, C., Hamilton, G., Dimitri, N., Young, A. (2021, January). Examining Participatory Approaches to Youth & Community-Led Health Promotion Strategies through a Critical Race Theory Lens. Roundtable accepted for the Society for Social Work Research Conference.

Hamilton, G. (2020, August). Green Rules Everything around Me (G.R.E.A.M): Racism, the Built Environment, and Philanthropy. Paper accepted as part of the Critical Dialogue: Pollution and Public Health in Low Income Communities for the 2020 Society for Social Problems Annual Meeting [Critical Dialogue canceled due to COVID-19].

Hamilton, G. (2020, August). Green Rules Everything around Me (G.R.E.A.M): Racism, Environmental Gentrification, and the Built Environment. Paper accepted as part of the Public Housing and Public Parks Informal Discussion Roundtable for the 2020 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting [Canceled due to COVID-19].

Hamilton, G. (2019, March). Panelist, Young Alumni’s Panel, University at Buffalo School of Social Work.

Hamilton, G. (2019, July). Guest lecturer, “The Nuts & Bolts of Coalition Building,” University at Buffalo School of Social Work.

Ely, G. E., Hales, T., Jackson, D. L., Maguin, E., & Hamilton, G. (2017, January). Access to choice: Differences between adolescent and adult abortion fund patients. Paper accepted as part of the symposium Annual Conference of the Society of Social Work and Research. Challenging Misdiagnoses and Scapegoats: Systems-, Strengths-, and Rights-Based Views of Youth Development.”

Ely, G. E., Jackson, D. L., Hales, T., Maguin, E, & Hamilton, G. (2016, November). Poverty and the art of financing abortion: An exploration of abortion funding assistance cases in the United States. Poster accepted for the North American Forum on Family Planning.

Grants

2021-2023 – NIDA Diversity Supplement Award ($135,600), HEALing Communities Study, Massachusetts (Project Number-3UM1DA049412-03S2).

2020 – Public Policy Fellow ($7,000), Harvard Kennedy School Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston: Fellowship placement with MassDevelopment Transformative Development Initiative (TDI) Program.

Professional Activities and Certifications

Society for the Study of Social Problems, Membership and Outreach Committee: Graduate Student Representative

Society for the Study of Social Problems, Co-Chair, Division of Sociology and Social Welfare

Awards and Honors

2021-2023 – NIDA Diversity Supplement Award ($135,600), HEALing Communities Study, Massachusetts (Project Number-3UM1DA049412-03S2).

2021 – Association for Community Organization and Social Action (ACOSA) Doctoral Student Award

2020 – Public Policy Fellow ($7,000), Harvard Kennedy School Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston: Fellowship placement with MassDevelopment Transformative Development Initiative (TDI) Program.

Graduation Year

2023 (expected)

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