FSOS alumna named Distinguished McKnight University Professor

Jerica M. Berge, a 2004 graduate of the Family Social Science doctoral program, has been honored as one of this year’s Distinguished McKnight University Professors.

According to the Scholars Walk website, “The Distinguished McKnight University Professorship program recognizes outstanding faculty members who have recently achieved full professor status. Recipients hold the title “Distinguished McKnight University Professor” for as long as they remain employed at the University of Minnesota.”

Berge is on faculty in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health in the University of Minnesota Medical School. Central to her research agenda is “addressing multi-level determinants of whole-person health to achieve health equity.”

Jerica Berge’s research aims to achieve whole-person health (i.e., physical, mental, behavioral, social) for all people. Using her multidisciplinary strengths from the fields of mental health, public health, and medicine, she develops groundbreaking mixed-methods studies to identify multi-level determinants (i.e., individual, interpersonal, community, societal/structural) of whole-person health in children and families to work towards achieving health equity. Her strategic and comprehensive approach accelerates the science to directly impact clinical care and public health.