U.S. Healthcare and Health Services Research

Dr. Sean Bruna, Speaker

Dr. Bruna is on leave from Western and serving as a Senior Advisor in the Immediate Office of the Director at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the Biden-Harris Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Sean Bruna is a tenured professor of medical anthropology and has advised nearly 40 master's and doctoral students. His previous research on patient health and wellness has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the Smithsonian Institution, among others. In addition to research, Dr. Bruna has extensive teaching experience, having taught more than 150 undergraduate/graduate anthropology and health-related theory and method courses. 

A Latino scholar, he holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico, where he specialized on chronic disease prevention with minoritized populations on the US - Mexico border.

Dr. Nicole Torres, Moderator

Dr. Torres is a cultural anthropologist, licensed independent clinical social worker and the author of Walls of Indifference: Immigration and the Militarization of the US-Mexico Border (2015), a book based on her doctoral research. In addition to her appointment at WWU, she is a practicing psychotherapist, harm reductionist, and clinical supervisor for MSW students and associate-level clinicians. Her research and practice focuses on integrating holistic and nature-based perspectives in clinical work as a means to improve individual and community health. As a clinician, she works primarily from Lacanian and ecopsychological perspectives.