Heather Basara, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
2012 Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust
Research Scholar
Department of Geography & Environmental Sustainability
Center for Applied Social Research
University of Oklahoma
Sarkeys Energy Center, Room 662
100 E. Boyd Street
Norman, OK 73072
Office: (405) 325-0928
Email: hbasara@ou.edu
Heather has an undergraduate degree in Botany from the University of Oklahoma and has also
earned graduate degrees in Environmental Management and Industrial Hygiene from the
College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center.
Heather’s research has included both occupational epidemiology and environmental health for
communities, industry, and tribal entities. Heather is most interested in studying the interaction
between people and environment, and how people organize to manage health related risks and
decisions. Of course, all of this is to understand the underlying cause of disease and to
determine new and strategic ways to reduce the burden of both chronic and infectious diseases
among friends and neighbors, locally and globally.
Currently, Heather is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and
Environmental Sustainability and the Center for Applied Social Research at the University of
Oklahoma in Norman. Current projects include engaging decisions makers in the tobacco
control problem, studying health disparities among American Indians, and investigating the
environmental determinants of disease in Sub-Saharan Africa.