Richard Brown II

Richard Brown II

Richard “Rick” Brown II, 43, a post-doctoral fellow in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, passed away on March 3, 2013, after suffering a massive stroke.

Rick received his MA (2007) and PhD (2011) from the University of Alabama in biocultural medical anthropology. He began his education at the Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, OH. After a short time he left school and embarked on a series of jobs, including manager of a rent-to-own furniture store and bouncer in a nightclub. In the early days of the internet he built a very successful web-hosting business and also had a business printing custom t-shirts. But Rick’s intellectual interests were too broad and insistent to remain in these pursuits. He tripled major in anthropology, philosophy and psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University. Because of his enduring interests in cognitive science and the influence of culture on biology, he went to Alabama for his PhD.

For his dissertation research under Bill Dressler, Rick did fieldwork in Guadalajara, Mexico, working with Javier Eduardo de Alba Garcia in a social science and epidemiology research unit. Rick was interested in how a patient’s cultural consonance with a shared cultural model of the treatment and management of diabetes might influence blood sugar and subjective well-being during treatment. He successfully defended his dissertation in 2011 and presented his work at various anthropology conferences.

Rick joined the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska in 2011 and, at the time of his death, had applied to become director of the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. He had become an integral part of the Institute, successfully competing for several large research contracts with the state and managing a number of ongoing projects examining Alaskan Native health. His work included evaluating Housing First programs for the state (harm reduction intervention for chronically homeless persons with alcohol dependence and mental illness) and sexual health interventions among Alaska Natives including HIV prevention in relation to alcohol consumption. He was just starting a project evaluating a local greenhouse that would employ developmentally disabled at-risk youth as part of a combined vocational training andsocial engagement intervention.

Rick is survived by his wife Justina Chapala Brown (Justy), son Jackson (Jake) and daughter Isabella (Bella); his parents, Richard and Lillian Brown, and his brothers, Steve Schilling and Jay Brown. Rick will be remembered as a valued student, friend and colleague. He was taken from us and from our profession at a tragically young age. Still, we can feel a measure of solace in the fact that Rick overcame many obstacles in his life and was able to achieve his life goals: to receive a PhD and successfully embark on a career in the field that he loved. He is deeply missed by many.

Contributions can be made to a fund set up by the University of Alaska to support his children’s college education at www.gofundme.com/282o94. (Kathryn Oths and William Dresser)

via Anthropology-News http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/06/12/richard-brown-ii/