Nikki Rogers, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Community Health at Boonshoft School of Medicine. She serves within the Global Health concentration in the Master of Public Health Program and directs the Culminating Experience courses (CMH 8210, CMH 8220). Dr. Rogers came to Wright State University in 2000 as a post-doctoral researcher for the Lifespan Health Research Center where she conducted research focused on body composition and health in African-American women and families. Her community outreach experience in public health was gained during her time as Research Assistant Professor in WSU’s Substance Abuse Resources and Disability Issues (SARDI) Program, where she served as a program evaluator for federally-funded interventions in substance abuse, mental health and HIV risk targeting the underserved African-American communities within Dayton. This allowed her to expand her focus on African-American women’s health beyond obesity and cardiovascular disease.  During this time she began working on issues impacting the health of African women through her involvement with the Kossoye Development Program, a non-profit program run by the University of Gondar and has introduced organic household gardening to thousands of families in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.

Dr. Rogers holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Her doctoral research and first post-doctoral work was conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina and focused on the African origins and diabetes risk of African-Americans living in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Her M.A. focused on skeletal biology and forensic anthropology (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) and she earned her B.A. in Anthropology from Florida State University in Tallahassee, where she studied archeology.