Tia M. Palermo

PhD

Dr. Tia Palermo.

Tia M. Palermo

PhD

Tia M. Palermo

PhD

Associate Professor
Division of Health Services Policy and Practice

Research Topics

Impacts of social policy on population health; global health; social protection; cash transfers; gender-based violence; sexual and reproductive health

Overview Publications

Summary

Tia Palermo, PhD, joined the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health as an associate professor in August 2019. 

Her research examines the impacts of social policy on population health. She is currently co-principal investigator of studies in Tanzania and Ethiopia examining the impacts of government social protection programs linked with other services and complementary interventions on health and well-being. She was co-principal investigator on a recently completed study in Ghana examining the impacts of a government initiative integrating a fee waiver for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) with Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) 1000 cash transfer program on maternal and child health and well-being. On these studies, she works closely with UNICEF country offices and local research partners [including Frontieri (formerly BDS Center for Development Research in Ethiopia); EDI Group (in Tanzania); and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) and Navrongo Health Research Centre (in Ghana)] to implement large impact evaluations through a range of experimental and quasi-experimental designs.

Before joining UB, Palermo was a social policy manager (Social Protection) with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) at the UNICEF Office of Research–Innocenti in Florence, Italy, where she led research on the impacts of social protection on child and adolescent well-being in sub-Saharan Africa and was actively engaged in facilitating evidence uptake in government decision-making. She was previously assistant professor at Stony Brook University in the Department of Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine and has also worked at international NGOs, including Ipas and Family Care International (now FCI Program of Management Sciences for Health), on issues related to sexual and reproductive health globally. Dr. Palermo is a member of the following Research Consortia: The Transfer Project and The Cash Transfer and Intimate Partner Violence Research Collaborative.​ She was selected as an External Research Collaborator for the GIRL Center at the Population Council (2022-2024).

Education

  • PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, public policy
    pre-doctoral trainee in demography, Carolina Population Center
  • MS, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, economics
    field: health economics
  • BA, State University of New York at Geneseo, economics and Spanish

Professional Training

  • Postdoctoral training, City University of New York Institute for Demographic Research

Professional Affiliations

  • Population Association of America, 2006-present
  • Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS), 2016-present
  • Society of Family Planning, full fellow (2018-Present), junior fellow (2013-2018)
  • American Public Health Association, 2008-2009, 2012-2017, 2019-present