Samantha Winter
With a focus on Sub-Saharan and East Africa, Dr. Winter’s research focuses on the climatic, environmental, and social determinants driving inequities in women’s health, well-being, and access to health-related services and the individual- and community-level interventions focused on reducing the impacts of these inequities in informal settlements and climate vulnerable communities.
Dr. Winter is deeply passionate about climate and environmental justice; women’s health, safety, and well-being; and informal settlement health. Her research broadly focuses on climatic, environmental, and social determinants of and inequities in women’s health, well-being, and access to health-related services in informal settlements and climate-vulnerable communities in sub-Saharan Africa as well as interpersonal- and community-level interventions focused on climate adaptation and improving women’s health, safety, and well-being in informal settlements in East Africa. She uses a community-engaged, empowerment-based approach to research. She is also passionate about teaching climate and environmental justice and human behavior in the social environment.
Dr. Winter’s current research projects include longitudinal research investigating direct and indirect pathways between climate and mental health and violence for women living in informal settlements in Kenya; adapting low-cost, community-delivered interventions to improve mental health, safety, and well-being among women experiencing violence in these settlements; and developing and testing mobile-health-based interventions to improve climate adaptation and safety and well-being among women experiencing violence in informal settlements in Kenya using ecological momentary approaches.
Dr. Winter’s previous work in East Africa included quantitative and qualitative explorations of the climatic, environmental, and social factors influencing access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), violence against women, and physical and health outcomes in informal settlements. She has also explored women’s empowerment, perceptions of gender norms, efficacy, and gender-based violence among women participating in health-related projects and women’s sports in rural Kenya.
Dr. Samantha Winter was the inaugural Dorothy Byrne Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Health at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. She received her Ph.D. and Master’s in Social Work from Rutgers University. She also holds an MS in Environmental Engineering and Science from Stanford University and a BS in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University.