Alessandra Bazzano, Ph.D. joined the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences faculty at Tulane University in 2012 and began her involvement with Taylor in a Design Thinking workshop in 2015. Her work applies a social innovation approach and design thinking methods to health behavior research and programming in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the United States. Her academic interests focus on the social and behavioral context for health, particularly as it relates to women and young children in low-income environments. Empathy, ideation, and iteration are key concepts in her teaching and research.
Bazzano’s courses include community nutrition and maternal child health from a life course perspective. Publications in peer reviewed journals have included topical areas such as: reproductive health services, breastfeeding and nutrition, child development, and everyday care practices, especially during pregnancy and the newborn period. During her doctoral research, she trained in medical anthropology. As a maternal child health researcher, her work has been funded by the United Nations World Health Organization and UNICEF among others. Prior to a 17-year career in public health, Bazzano worked in radio journalism, television and film. A native New Orleanian and Tulane alumna, she seeks to build a core research area in design thinking for social and behavioral change as part of her work in social innovation and social entrepreneurship at Taylor. She brings increased international opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to get involved in social innovation and design for development with organizations and people in Cambodia, the United Kingdom and Ghana.
Bazzano holds the Carnegie Corporation of New York Professor of Social Entrepreneurship from 2016 to 2021.