In September 2008, Professor Nora Ellen Groce joined University College London as the new Leonard Cheshire Chair and Director of the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre, in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.

Professor Groce is a medical anthropologist, working in the area of global health and international development with particular emphasis on cross-cultural systems of health care and health as a human rights issue. Her research interests include issues of disability in international health and development, violence as a global public health problem, equity in access to health care in ethnic, minority and rural communities and the integration of western and traditional health care systems.

Professor Groce regularly serves as an advisor to United Nations (UN) agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, UNFPA and a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs). She has published widely on both research and policy initiatives and has serves as editor and reviewer for a number of leading journals.

Prior to coming to UCL, Professor Groce was a Research Scientist at Harvard University (1986-1990) and Associate Professor in Global Health at Yale University and Director of the Yale/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre (1991-2008).

Education

Post-Doctoral Fellow – Harvard Medical School/ Boston Children's Hospital, 1984-1986.

Ph.D. in Medical and Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA, 1983.

M.A., Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. 1976.

B.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, 1974.

Professional Services – Recent

United Nations Secretariat – Millennium Development Goals and the Standard Rules – integration in light of the Convention.

Advisor, Handicap International – African Campaign on Disability and HIV/AIDS, 2006-present

Chair, Thematic Group on Violence against Disabled Children, UNICEF, 2006.

Director, Yale/World Bank Global Survey on HIV/AIDS and Disability.

Member, International Watch: Ad Hoc Group on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, United States National Council on Disability, 1999-present.

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Advisor on health and disability – (Various committees) – 2003-2007.

To contact Professor Groce, please email nora.groce@ucl.ac.uk, or telephone +44 (0)207 679 4518.

Click here for a list of Professor Nora Groce's publications