Core Department Faculty Member

Julie Phillips, professor and chair of Sociology, is a social demographer with broad interests in mortality, health, immigration, and crime, and the ways in which structural features of society influence those outcomes. Her recent research examines the sharp increases in U.S. suicide rates since 2000, focusing on sociocultural and demographic explanations for how and why suicide risk varies across the life course, over time, and among birth cohorts. Her present work seeks to understand the mental health crisis and rising rates of suicidal behavior among American youth.

She writes for a variety of audiences, publishing in journals such as Demography, Social Science and Medicine, Health Affairs, and American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Her work has been supported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Institute for Mental Health and the National Science Foundation, and featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio among other outlets. She served as a member of the New Jersey Youth Suicide Prevention Advisory Council from 2011 to 2016, and she is currently an advisor for the Scientific Council for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Phillips teaches courses in population health, demography, research methods, and statistics.