Vanessa Chee, PhD

Vanessa Alicia Chee is a mixed methods social scientist who has experience designing and analyzing surveys, focus groups, interviews and ethnographic observations among diverse populations that include the Indigenous of Ecuador, Panama and Belize, African Americans, Latinos, and immigrants from Africa and China residing in Canada. Her global health work spans the following countries: Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, Ecuador, Panama, Belize, Chile, Ireland, Canada and the United States. Her most recent research adapted Marginal Bottlenecks and Budgeting Analysis to create a scorecard assessment tool to assess and compare system readiness to implement obesity treatment protocol across Chile, Ireland and Canada.

Research Interests

• Chronic disease prevention, policy research and development
• Health system assessment
• Health disparities
• Indigenous health
• Individual and household lifestyle assessment
   

Select Publications

• Ozorio Dutra, S., Chee, V., Weeks, K., Pontin, D., & Clochesy, J. M. (2023). Evaluation and Recommendations for the Brazilian Version of safeMedicate: A Cross-Cultural Adaptation. Education Sciences, 13(3), 223.
• Ozorio Dutra, S. Chee, V., & Clochesy, J. M. (2023). Adapting an Educational Software Internationally: Cultural and Linguistical Adaptation. Education Sciences, 13(3), 237.
• Chee, V. (2021) Covid-19 vaccines: A leap of faith and the power of trust among Black and Hispanic communities July 15, 2021.  https://firstdraftnews.org/long-form-article/covid-19-vaccines-black-hispanic-communities/
• Chee, V., Teran, E., Hernandez, I., Wright, L., Izurieta, R., Reina, M., . . . Martinez-Tyson, D. (2019).
• "Desculturización", urbanization and the nutrition transition among urban Kichwas indigenous communities residing in the Andes highlands of Ecuador. Public Health (Special edition: Indigenous Health).
• Best, A. L., Logan, R. G., Vázquez-Otero, C., Fung, W., Chee, V., Thompson, E. L., ... & Daley, E. M. (2018). Application of a Health Literacy Framework to Explore Patients’ Knowledge of the Link between    HPV and Cancer. Journal of health communication, 23(8), 695-702.
• Martinez Tyson, D., Teran, E., Đào, L. U. L., Chee, V., Hernández, I., Flores, M., ... & Baldwin, J. A. (2018). “Cancer is in style”: lifestyle change and the perceived impact of globalization on Andean indigenous communities in Ecuador. Ethnicity & health, 1-15.
• Chee, V. A. (2018). The Nutrition Transition Among the Andean Kichwas of Ecuador. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8470&context=etd
• Hochschild, T., Farley, M., & Chee, V. (2013). Incorporating Sociology into Community Service Classes. Teaching Sociology, 42(105). doi: 10.1177/0092055X13510210

Awards and Recognition

• Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Connecticut
• Organization of the American States Scholarship
   

Degrees

• Doctor of Philosophy, University of South Florida
• Masters of Arts, Fulbright Scholarship, University of Connecticut
• Bachelors of Science, University of the West Indies