Richard A “Ran” Nisbett
Member At-Large
Richard A “Ran” Nisbett earned graduate degrees in anthropology, community ecology and public health. He has studied and taught at the interface of biology, culture and environment, i.e., “transdisciplinary” global health. A good example is disease ecology in resource-scarce settings examining how zoonotic & vector-borne diseases cross over into human populations. Recently retired, during his academic career he sought to advance social-justice medicine by better understanding: (1) the human ecology and cross-species transmission of vector-borne & zoonotic EIDs; (2) the social determinants, barriers and bridges to access for the infectious diseases of poverty; and (3) the health-decision frameworks employed by those living in absolute poverty.
Ran has worked intensively in several countries, most notably Jamaica, Costa Rica, Cambodia, Uganda and Liberia. He began working in Liberia in 1988, traveling and living there on and off since that time. He collaborated with several Liberian Ministries, civil society organizations and the United Methodist Church as well as international organizations such as the World Health Organization and Worldwide Fund for Nature.
His passions include: biodiversity conservation, public health, higher education and community engagement. Having served as a faculty member at several USA universities over a 30-year career, his final academic appointment was as Vice President for Research at WVS Tubman University in Harper, Maryland County, Liberia. He now lives in Fairhope, AL, where he is involved with rural community health and environmental justice. He remains active in global health diplomacy and public health advocacy in Liberia and Cambodia.