Tulane's Dr. Arachu Castro named President-Elect of the Society for Medical Anthropology

Dr. Arachu Castro, Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America, was elected to the role of president-elect of the Society for Medical Anthropology. She will serve in that role for one year, followed by a two-year term as president, and a year as past-president.  

Dr. Castro, an associate professor in the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Collaborative Group for Health Equity in Latin America, has a research focus on the social causes of health inequalities. She’s the lead author of the UNICEF-Tulane Health Equity Report 2016: Analysis of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health Inequities in Latin America and the Caribbean to Inform Policy Making.  

Dr. Castro has been actively involved in developing research and educational relationships between faculty at Tulane and the National School of Public Health in Havana, Cuba, where she coordinates an annual summer learning course for SPHTM students. She received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010 for her research on HIV among women in Latin America and the Caribbean.  

The Society for Medical Anthropology is one of the largest sections of the American Anthropological Association.