Heather McIlvaine-Newsad
Heather McIlvaine-Newsad
Ph.D., Research Fellow, Associate Professor
Morgan Hall 410
309-398-1264
h-mcilvaine-newsad@wiu.edu
Heather McIlvaine-Newsad is an associate professor of Anthropology, Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, at Western Illinois University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in applied cultural anthropology in August 2000 with a focus on gender, agriculture, and natural resource management strategies in Ecuador. She also earned an M.A. in International Development from Ohio University, and a B.A. in German from Denison University. Immediately after graduating from Denison University, Heather served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Her primary duties centered on a community reforestation project, dooryard gardens, and health education. She speaks fluent German and Spanish.
Research Interests:
Heather's current research focuses on the influences of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status on health care in rural Illinois. She regularly conducts research for rural hospitals helping them improve their relationships with local communities. She recently completed a collaborative research project on the impact of gender and ethnicity in the secondary mathematics classroom in Gainesville, Florida with Dr. Paige Lado. Finally, she is conducting a cross-cultural analysis of the economic and cultural roles of Community Supported Agriculture, CSA, in rural Illinois and Germany. Her teaching interests include, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Native North American Cultures, Gender & Anthropology, Applied Anthropological Research Methods, and the Gender, Nature, and Race.
