Amelia Greiner Safi

Amelia Greiner Safi, Ph.D., is a Professor of Social and Behavioral Science and of Public Health Practice in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at Cornell University. Her interdisciplinary research takes a systems perspective and focuses on understanding individual and contextual drivers of human behavior, enabling responsive interventions that drive impact.

For tick-borne disease (TBD), Dr. Safi has worked with collaborators at the CDC-funded Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases Training and Evaluation Center( NEVBD-TEC), led by Dr. Laura Harrington, on four main areas:
– Understanding how rural adults in the Northeast perceive Lyme disease risks and their interests in/questions about a new Lyme disease vaccine
– Assessing what emergency medicine and urgent care providers understand about TBD in the U.S. to identify gaps and design responsive medical education
– Training the vector-borne disease (VBD) workforce on strategic communication, trust, and human behavior to enhance their impact
– Supporting VBD researchers new to social science in how to apply social and behavioral science methods and theory

Dr. Safi also works on preventing antimicrobial resistance in veterinary and animal agriculture, addressing cancer disparities in New York State, advancing rural health outcomes, and teaching social epidemiology and strategic public health communication for the Cornell MPH Program. Dr. Safi received her Ph.D. from the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her Master’s of Science in Risk and Science Communication from Cornell University.