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Biography

Headshot of Britt Dahlberg, Ph.D.
Teaching Faculty

Britt Dahlberg, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
Core Faculty, Center for Humanism

Education and Training

Graduate School:  PhD (Anthropology) - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 
Fellowship: Reserach Fellow - Center for Excellence in Environmental Toxicology, Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 

 

About Me

Britt Dahlberg, PhD joined CMSRU as Director of Research in the Center for Humanism in January 2021, and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine in October 2022. She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. She served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Center for Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) at the Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania, NIH Superfund Research Center (SRP).

In the Center for Humanism, Dr. Dahlberg leads a collaborative team that bridges social sciences, humanities, and health research. Her team is creating better understandings and interventions in healthcare practice; working to improve medical training; and aiming to create more equitable compassionate healthcare experiences for patients and communities. Dr. Dahlberg has partnered with Cooper University Health Care faculty to design and implement novel interprofessional communications training using oral history (grant funding from ABIM with Dr. Jenny Melli), and to identify underlying challenges and strengths shaping medical education in OB-GYN. Within CMSRU, Dr. Dahlberg and her team are conducting research that examines the factors shaping medical student clerkship experiences, to support feedback loops between student and educator needs, research, and the strengthening of medical education.

Dr. Dahlberg brings over 20 years of experience designing, leading, and mentoring qualitative and mixed methods research in public health and healthcare. Her expertise includes the social and cultural dynamics of U.S. healthcare and is informed by training in medical anthropology, and work in Oral History, Public History, and Disability Studies. She finds meaning in fostering community dialogue around environmental risk and justice (REACH Ambler: https://ceet.upenn.edu/reachambler/); exploring ripple effects of pandemics with public audiences through Oral History, online exhibits, and social media (The Beyond Better Project: https://www.beyondbetter.org/), and multimedia art exhibit and letterpress collection on climate change (https://www.esu.edu/madelon-powers/exhibitions/living-with-world/index.cfm). In addition, she has been a selected Teacher and Mentor for the National NIH Mixed Methods Training Program (MMRTP) hosted at Johns Hopkins since 2012, where she helps train and advise health researchers on research design and grant writing. Dr. Dahlberg’s work has been supported by numerous grants and awards from NIH, NSF, Wenner Gren, ACLS/Mellon, RWJ, ABIM, and EPA.

She enjoys being outside with her dog, gardening, hiking, kayaking, and visual and fiber arts. She has been learning American Sign Language since 2019 and holds a post-baccalaureate certificate in ASL/English Interpreting from the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP).