Research Associate, Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, Duke University Medical Center
A.B. Davidson College
M.S.P.H. University of North Carolina School of Public Health
Sc.D. Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Elizabeth Gerken Hooten holds an AB in Religion and Premedicine from Davidson College, an MSPH in Health Policy from the UNC School of Public Health and an ScD in Public Health Policy and Practice from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University. She has over 20 years of experience in public health program and research settings. She has worked for state health departments in FL, LA, MD, and NC (including nearly four years as the statistician for the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner) and with academic interests at UNC, UCLA, Johns Hopkins University, UAB and Auburn University. From 1999-2004, Dr. Hooten served as biostatistics services manager for the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. In 2005, she shifted her career focus to include a greater focus on religion, spirituality and health, especially in the context of community-based participatory research. In the past two years, she completed postdoctoral training at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in population sciences and cancer (2005-2006) and at Duke University (2006-2007) in religion and health.
Dr. Hooten’s areas of expertise are research methods and public health programs. She is interested in health and spirituality; cancer survivorship; death, dying, and the end of life; and research/intervention dissemination particularly in community settings.
Outside of her activities within the CSTH, she oversees a local community group dedicated to educating the public about end of life issues, a focus of which is use of the arts to encourage storytelling and personal engagement. On their farm in Orange County, her family raises beef cattle and endeavors to supervise two very busy basset hounds. Dr. Hooten may be reached at 336-214-3992 or elizabeth.hooten@duke.edu.
