Lorelei Cropley

Belize Program Leader

Lorelei Dickey Cropley started her career as a registered nurse. Serving in remote French speaking communities of south Louisiana led her to the areas of community health, health communication, and evidence based practice and messaging based on medical anthropology . After she earned her Doctorate of Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (being unable to resist pull of “Tropical Medicine”), she went on to in develop health education policy and programs in areas such as malaria control, maternal/child health, and water and sanitation for domestic and international agencies including CARE International, UNICEF, and Ministries of Health. She has presented papers and posters at numerous domestic and international conferences and has published in many peer reviewed journals. She is currently clinical associate faculty for Tulane’s School of Public Health undergraduate program where, in addition to teaching, she serves as a mentor and advisor to undergraduate students, with a focus on those interested in global experience and indigenous health equity. She infuses her courses with the One Health concept of the interaction of animals, humans and their environment. She believes students learn best when they get out of the classroom and into the community. She is a member of Medical Reserve Corps and responds to health emergencies, often serving alongside her current and former students . Over the last 10 years she has expanded her scholarship and practice to the areas of Indigenous people and Health Equity. She serves as an academic observer at the annual meeting for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), a high- level advisory body to the Economic and Social Council. Lorelei has traveled extensively and lived abroad in both high and low-income countries. She loves hiking, and riding her horse El Camino. She currently lives in the culturally diverse and always enthralling city of New Orleans in an 1836 Creole townhouse with her dog Cowbelle, and a ghost.