Kirk Dombrowski became vice president for research at the University of Vermont in April 2020. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Notre Dame University, an M.A. in Anthropology from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from CUNY Graduate School and University Center. Prior to joining UVM, Dr. Dombrowski was a faculty member for 15 years at John Jay College in New York City, after which he moved to the University of Nebraska (UNL) where he held several leadership positions. He was the founding director of UNL’s Rural Drug Addiction Research Center; interim director of the Nebraska Center for Virology, a biochemistry research institute; and director of UNL’s Minority Health Disparities Initiative, a university-wide faculty, recruitment, development, and community engagement initiative.

Dr. Dombrowski is also an active researcher whose work prioritizes community-engaged, team-based research that straddles the social and behavioral health sciences, a link he has used to address issues public of concern and social good, such as HIV infection dynamics, drug and alcohol addiction, minority health disparities, and suicide prevention in Native American/First Nation communities. His research has received funding from NSF, NIH, and numerous foundation sources, and his published work has appeared in social science, computer science and health science journals. He is also author of several ethnographic monographs, including Culture Politics: The Story of Native Land Claims in Alaska (2014, Syron Design Academic Publishing) and Against Culture: Development, Politics and Religion in Indian Alaska (2001, University of Nebraska Press).