THRIVING

April 2022

iTHRIV Under the Microscope

Sophie Wenzel is Associate Director for the Center for Public Health Practice and Research, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Virginia Tech. She joined Virginia Tech in 2013 and has been part of the iTHRIV Community and Collaboration core since its inception. Her main responsibility with iTHRIV is coordinating the community seed grants. She has loved working with colleagues at UVA, Carilion, and Inova and amazing community partners.

Her position is partially supported by the New River Health District of the Virginia Department of Health, for which Sophie coordinates the New River Academic Health Department. Sophie likes to call herself a “pracademic”- a practice-based academic- she is happiest when she is out in the community!

When she is not working, Sophie enjoys road and mountain biking, hiking, cross country skiing, and basically just being outdoors. She also enjoys reading, spending time with friends and volunteering at the local animal shelter. What she adores most is spending time with her two daughters, Solette and Lila, husband Todd, and four rescue kitties. She enjoys the connections that she builds every day with her neighbors in her co-housing community (look it up!)

Sophie holds a DrPH in Public Health Leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago, an MPH in International Health and Population Studies from Emory University, and a BS in Linguistics and Spanish from Georgetown University.

Sophie started her career in public health when she joined the Peace Corps and was sent to rural Paraguay to promote maternal, child, and adolescent health. In her current role, Sophie promotes collaboration between faculty, students, and community partners to enhance public health in Southwest Virginia and beyond. She oversees multiple evaluation and research projects across the region and state. Sophie’s research and professional interests include maternal child and adolescent health, youth risk behaviors, international health, sexual and reproductive health, community engaged research and participatory methods, and evaluation of public health programs.