Rate My Professor karen Spencer

Karen Lutfey Spencer is a Professor in the Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Indiana University (2000), an M.A. in Sociology from Indiana University (1995), and a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Gustavus Adolphus College (1993). Spencer completed a postdoctoral fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco (2002-2004). She previously served as Associate Professor and Department Chair in Health and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver from 2016 to 2019 and has built a career spanning over 25 years studying healthcare inequality.

Spencer's research employs qualitative methods to investigate medical decision making, health disparities, patient-provider relationships, and patient adherence across conditions such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, schizophrenia, and depression. Her current focus examines the social context of end-of-life decision making in the United States, including influences from healthcare systems, payers, providers, and social networks on hospice utilization. Notable publications include 'High Stakes Treatment Negotiations Gone Awry: The importance of interactions for understanding treatment advocacy and patient resistance' (Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2024, with Alexandra Tate), 'Extending the Case for a “Health Disparities Research Industrial Complex”: A Response to Ezell' (Social Science and Medicine, 2024, with Emily Hammad Mrig), 'The Many Faces of Medical Treatment Imperatives: Biopower and the Cultural Authority of Medicine in Late-Life Treatment Decisions in the U.S.' (Sociology of Health and Illness, 2022), and 'Transforming Patient Compliance Research in an Era of Biomedicalization' (Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2018). She has contributed to public discourse through features in The New York Times, NPR affiliates, Cosmopolitan, and others on topics like medical gaslighting and end-of-life care. Spencer teaches courses including Theoretical Perspectives in Health and Behavioral Sciences I, Applications of the Health and Behavioral Sciences, and Social Determinants of Health, and previously served as Past Chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.