MacKenzie Isaac

MacKenzie (Kenzie) Isaac joined the Ethox Centre in October 2023 as a DPhil candidate in Population Health. A health educator and a former community organiser for health promotion, Kenzie is broadly passionate about naming and addressing chronic diseases (and chronic disease-causing health behaviours) that are exacerbated by discrimination and other structural-level stressors. Her current research focuses on mapping the social, political, environmental, and commercial determinants of binge eating disorder in Black adolescent populations, with the hopes of developing an evidence-based, ethnically-sound, peer-led intervention in direct collaboration with these adolescents. She also plans to explore how moral panic surrounding disordered eating and related body-focused mental illnesses has embedded itself in health communications, potentially reinforcing stigmas and posing an additional barrier to help-seeking behaviours. Her supervisors are Dr Gabriela Pavarini and Dr Michael Parker. 

In addition to her research, Kenzie is a contributing writer (with a topical focus on reproductive and minority health) for the science communication platform Those Nerdy Girls. A 2022 Rhodes Scholar, Kenzie completed her MSc in Modelling for Global Health at Oxford in 2023. Prior to moving to Oxford, she received her MA in Health Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and her BA (Honours) in Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist.