Michelle Anderson, PhD

Program Specialist, USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, Keck School of Medicine of USC
Location: 318-04
Telephone: 323-442-7228
Email: ma98475@usc.edu

Michelle Anderson is a Program Specialist with the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH). 

Michelle has over seven years of experience in human rights, public policy, and transitional justice living in the United States, South Africa, Northern Ireland, and the Palestinian territories. She has also served as a political risk analyst in Morocco and Ghana, providing intelligence and forecasts on subjects including governance, regional security, and public health. Her professional work and academic scholarship places emphasis on providing evidence-based recommendations for policy and practice. Her work thus far has focused on political conflict, post-conflict recovery, and issues of access to public services and democratic processes. Prior to joining USC, Michelle was  a political disorder researcher for the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project working with the US, UK, and Afghanistan teams. While at ACLED, Michelle contributed to the COVID-19 Disorder Tracker, providing special coverage of the pandemic’s impact on political unrest. She was also exclusively responsible for tracking election-related political violence in 11 states for the US Crisis Monitor. 

Michelle received her PhD from the University of Cape Town in Media Studies and Historical Studies. She also holds an M.Phil in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation from Trinity College Dublin and BAs in Human Rights and Anthropology from Southern Methodist University. She is passionate about inclusive justice and has volunteered with incarcerated or formerly incarcerated individuals in several capacities, most recently as a restorative justice and trauma-informed yoga teacher in South Africa’s maximum capacity prisons.