Sirry Alang

Sirry Alang is a Cameroonian-American health services researcher examining the structural causes of health inequity and the social determinants of health. A medical sociologist, she is also an Associate Professor of Sociology and Health, Medicine and Society at Lehigh University.

Early life and education Alang is from Cameroon. Her mother, Margaret M. Tanni, raised her and encouraged her to pursue an academic career. After earning her master's degree, Alang moved to the University of Minnesota, where she studied in the Division of Health Policy and Management and obtained a Ph.D. in Health Services Research, Policy and Administration. Her dissertation about mental health, supervised by Donna McAlpine, While finishing her Ph.D., Alang worked as a Principal Planning Analyst in the Hennepin County Public Health department.

Research and career Alang joined the faculty at Lehigh University in 2015, where she investigates structural racism in the healthcare system and how this impacts the delivery and outcome of health services. She is a founding co-director of the Institute of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at Lehigh University and the Chair of the Health Justice Collaborative. In 2019 she was named a Campus Compact Engaged Scholar. After the murder of George Floyd, Alang provided expert commentary to the media on the public health impact of police brutality. She wrote about the role of white communities in confronting structural racism, in speaking up, calling out discrimination and taking action to stand up for racial justice.

In September 2020, Alang tweeted to call for teachers to become more aware of their language and sensitive to the fact that children could be living in single parent homes, or ones with two mothers or two fathers. The tweet went viral, and was covered across international media.

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