Dr. Dalton Conley

Dr. Dalton Conley is the Dean of Health Science at University of the People. Dr. Conley holds a B.A. from the University of California – Berkeley, an M.P.A. and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with University of the People, Dr. Conley is the Henry Putnam University Professor in Sociology at Princeton University. He was previously Dean for the Social Sciences, as well as University Professor at New York University where he held faculty appointments in NYU’s Sociology Department, School of Medicine and the Wagner School of Public Service. He also serves as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and affiliated faculty at the New York Genome Center.

Conley’s research focuses on the determinants of health and economic opportunity within and across generations. In this vein, he studies sibling differences in socioeconomic success and health; racial inequalities; the measurement of class; and how health and biology affect (and are affected by) social position.

Dr. Conley has received impressive awards. In 2005, he became the first sociologist to win the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, given annually to one young researcher in any field of science, mathematics or engineering. He is also a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow; has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation; a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award; and an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2018 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.