Thomas Fuller-Rowell, Ph.D. profile and information
Learn more about Thomas Fuller-Rowell, Ph.D.
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Accepting new graduate students: Yes
Accepting new undergraduate students: Yes
Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell is Professor of Human Development and Family Science in the College of Human Sciences at Auburn University. He brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of human development and population health, with training spanning life-span development, stress-process physiology, aging, and population-level social processes. His work integrates developmental science, social epidemiology, and public health to examine how social contexts shape health and well-being across the life course. He earned his B.A. in Biochemistry and Psychology, summa cum laude, from the University of Colorado in 2003 and his Ph.D. from the Department of Human Development at Cornell University in 2010. Dr. Fuller-Rowell completed postdoctoral training in population health sciences and health disparities as a Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2011–2013) and as a research fellow at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan (2010–2011). Prior to his academic career, he worked for a civil rights organization in Buffalo, New York addressing housing discrimination (2003–2004) and implemented multi-site action research projects in New York City (2004–2006). These experiences continue to inform his interdisciplinary research agenda, which is oriented toward generating evidence to support high-level policy decisions aimed at improving population health and well-being.
Education
Ph.D.Cornell University2010
Innovation
Dr. Fuller-Rowell’s research examines the macro-level determinants of health and the social and stress-related processes that generate health disparities across population groups and across the life course. His work integrates life-span developmental science, stress-process physiology, aging, and population health perspectives to understand how social, economic, and institutional contexts shape health trajectories, health inequalities, and the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.
A central focus of his research is on the social determinants of health across the life span, including societal trends in social and health inequality, population health dynamics, and mechanisms of stratification studied within social epidemiology. His current work specifically investigates socioeconomic and racial disparities in health and health behaviors, with an emphasis on how these mechanisms—and the overall magnitude and patterning of inequalities—are shifting in contemporary societies.
Dr. Fuller-Rowell’s research increasingly adopts global and comparative approaches, examining temporal and contextual variation in health and inequality across countries and historical periods, and evaluating the implications of these patterns for public health and social policy. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and has led or collaborated on multiple federally funded projects focused on health, social inequality, and population health processes.
