Rate My Professor Brea Perry

Brea L. Perry is the Allen D. and Polly S. Grimshaw Professor of Sociology at Indiana University Bloomington, where she also serves as Vice Provost and Associate Vice President for Research, Associate Director of the Irsay Institute for Sociomedical Sciences Research, and affiliated faculty of the Indiana University Network Science Institute. She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology with a minor in Interdisciplinary Approaches to Health and Illness from Indiana University Bloomington in 2008, an M.A. in Sociology from the same institution in 2002, and a B.S. in Psychology along with B.A.s in Sociology, Biology, and French in 1999. Perry's research investigates the interrelated roles of social networks, biomarkers, social psychology, and social inequality in health and illness, with emphasis on mental illness, substance use disorders, opioid-seeking behavior, cognitive aging, and stigma. Her work employs longitudinal designs, dynamic process models, and personal social network analysis. Current NIH- and NSF-funded projects include examinations of social safety nets for healthcare super-utilizers, social network moderation of neurodegeneration, and epigenetic mechanisms linking social connectedness to aging-related diseases.

Perry began her academic career as Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky from 2008 to 2013, advancing to Associate Professor there until 2014, before returning to Indiana University as Associate Professor and rising to full Professor in 2018. She has received prestigious honors including election to the Sociological Research Association in 2021, National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar in 2019, multiple American Sociological Association section awards such as the Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award (2017, 2009) and James A. Coleman Award (2016), and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2002-2005). Key publications include the book Egocentric Network Analysis: Foundations, Methods, and Models (Cambridge University Press, 2018, with Pescosolido and Borgatti); editor of Fifty Years after Deinstitutionalization (Advances in Medical Sociology, 2016), Genetics, Health, & Society (2015), and others; and articles such as "Suspending Progress: Collateral Consequences of Exclusionary Punishment in Public Schools" (American Sociological Review, 2014, with Morris) and "Gendering Genetics" (American Journal of Sociology, 2016). Perry has secured major grants from the National Institute on Aging and others totaling millions, and served as Associate Editor for Journal of Health and Social Behavior (2017-2019) and Alzheimer’s & Dementia (2022-2024), and Series Editor for Advances in Medical Sociology (2013-2021).