The ASA selection Committee chose to award the 2026 Public Understanding of Sociology Award to Dr. Elizabeth Wrigley-Field for her impressive work with the media, government, public education and community organizations in translating health equity research into meaningful social action. Dr. Wrigley-Field is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Minnesota Population Center. Her research addresses health inequities, and she has collaborated with governmental and community organizations to combat them.
In 2020-2021, Dr. Wrigley-Field met regularly with the Minnesota Department of Health Leaders to assist in developing measures of equity in COVID health metrics. When her work uncovered excess mortality among Minnesotan Native Americans, she collaborated with tribal leaders to disseminate this knowledge. She also worked with the Minneapolis Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs to prepare reports of the Minneapolis City Council on pandemic mortality in immigrant and refugee populations. She was twice invited to present her research to the director of the NICHD to help inform COVID-19 funding priorities.
Her research and public advocacy on COVID-19 vaccine equity was also particularly influential. In February 2021, she founded the Seward Vaccine Equity Project to distribute vaccines to African immigrants and their families, many of whom lived in communities with high hesitancy about childhood vaccines. The same month, she presented her research on vaccine allocation inequalities related to systemic racism to a group of 100 state health care leaders and workers in Minnesota, influencing crucial vaccination policies in early 2021. She has continued to train local government agencies and country employees on racial disparities in health and health impacts.
In 2022, Dr. Wrigley-Field helped found and lead a second community health organization, the East Phillips Health Team, which advocates for Little Earth, the nation’s only Indigenous-preference Section 8 housing, located in East Phillips, Minneapolis. This organization successfully advocated that the city of Minneapolis reconsider plans to house its entire fleet of diesel vehicles in this neighborhood that already faced excessive air pollution. As part of these efforts, Dr. Wrigley-Field lead-authored a letter of more than 300 health professionals to state legislators. This organization now focuses on distributing air filters, offering lead testing, and distributing information to residents about air pollution and ways to mitigate its risks.
In addition to her leadership in these organizations, Dr. Wrigley-Field regularly writes for the media and serves as an expert for the press. Her research related to racial inequalities during the pandemic, in which she noted non-pandemic U.S. Black mortality rates were higher than White mortality during COVID-19, was widely covered, and had a particularly large impact on the public understanding of racial inequalities. More locally, she ran a “politics of pandemics” book club at her local bookstore, which increased local public understanding of this topic.
Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, recipient of the 2026 Public Understand of Sociology Award.