SOCIOLOGISTS MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Elizabeth Nova is a PhD student and CSDE T32 fellow in Sociology. Here research focuses on population health and spans diverse topics including homelessness, health disparities, misinformation, health behavior, and COVID-19. She is an active member of the Social, Spatial, and Dynamic Analysis (SSDA) research lab and the Homelessness Research Working Group, both led by Professor Zack Almquist in the Department of Sociology.
One of Elizabeth’s most impactful research experiences was her involvement in the 2023 UW King County Understanding Homelessness Project. The project incorporated innovative methods, such as respondent-driven sampling to address the challenges of accurately counting the unhoused population. As the project manager and a lead graduate research assistant, she helped lead survey design, project coordination, managing complex coupon systems, team training, and data analysis.
Elizabeth is currently working on a paper that uses data from the 2023 UW King County Understanding Homelessness Project to examine the needs of individuals living in vehicles in King County, WA. The study hopes to provide a deeper understanding of the unique challenges and disparities faced by those living in RVs and vehicles compared to individuals living in shelters or entirely unsheltered.
She has shared her work on homelessness at major conferences, including the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the Population Association of America (PAA). She continues to collaborate with her team from the 2023 UW King County Understanding Homelessness Project on additional research initiatives, further contributing to the field’s understanding of homelessness and its complexities.