Ladia, Mary Ann J.

Mary Ann J. Ladia, Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology specialized in 1) Anthropology of Health: Infectious Diseases in the Sociocultural Context, and 2) Anthropology of Local Knowledges: Rituals and Systems of Healing at Michigan State University. She has a solid health research background and experience with inter-, multi- and transdisciplinary teams using both qualitative and quantitative methods. As medical anthropologist, Dr. Ladia contributes to earlier theorizing on globalization and infection by complementing or even contradicting a few notions of the increasingly globalized world. She explained the critical aspects of tuberculosis (TB) program from the perspectives of the program managers, health providers, patients and the lay. She co-authored papers related to TB such as stigma, globalization and boundaries including contributions of ethnography, as well as a research on missing people with TB. She likewise presented six papers about TB in the Philippines in three universities in the US: Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University and Texas A&M University, McAllen Campus and College Station. Dr. Ladia serves as principal investigator or consultant to the Neglected Tropical Disease Study Group’s research on schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Aside from infectious diseases, she also co-authored community health workers’ (CHWs) cardiovascular risk with the LIFE course study in CARdiovascular disease Epidemiology (LIFECARE) Philippine Study Group. She likewise conducted studies on women’s, adolescents’ and children’s health including indigenous peoples’ health and systems of healing. In collaboration with the Institute on Aging (IA), Dr. Ladia and her research team explored and exposed the everyday lives of 25 older Filipino population in the form of narratives. They narrated the experiences, environments and events that shape the existence of robust, pre-frail or frail elders from all walks of life. In “Frailty among older persons: Cases of Pre-Frail, Frail and Robust Filipinos,” they examined the older populations’ multidimensional frailty status using the healthy ageing framework as applied in the Philippine context. This qualitative research may contribute to the holistic understanding of the health and humanity of the rapidly aging global population. Currently, Dr. Ladia serves as the Project Leader of the research entitled, “Collaborations and Qualitative Assessments of Health and Well-being” of the UP Manila Wellness Initiatives for Seniors and Elders or the UPMWISE program – another collaboration with IA. UPMWISE is a two-year research program funded by the Emerging Interdisciplinary Research Cycle 9 that commenced on 15 January 2022.