HSR Investigator Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Society for Medical Anthropology

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December 12, 2025

Health Systems Research is proud to announce that VA HSR Research Career Scientist, Alison Hamilton, PhD, MPH, Implementation Research Director at HSR's Center for the Study of Innovation, Implementation, & Policy (CSHIIP) in Los Angeles, CA, recently received the George M. Foster Practicing Medical Anthropology Award from the Society for Medical Anthropology. This lifetime achievement award, given every other year, recognizes an anthropologist whose work has made significant contributions to applying theory and methods in medical anthropology, particularly in diverse contexts, to multidisciplinary audiences, and with an impact on policy.

Dr. Hamilton won this award for her pioneering work on tailoring qualitative methods for health services and implementation research-and for her body of work in women's health, mental health research, and quality improvement. For example, she has led the Enhancing Mental and Physical health of Women through Engagement and Retention (EMPOWER) Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) for more than 10 years. EMPOWER's mission is to ensure that women Veterans can access appropriate, evidence-based healthcare in ways that accommodate their needs and preferences. She and her colleagues also conducted impactful work on harassment of women Veterans, which informed the Deborah Sampson Act that established a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment at VA facilities. It also mandated the development of training materials, which Dr. Hamilton helped develop.

Dr. Hamilton's history of mentoring also contributed to her receipt of the Foster Award. She received the VA HSR Daniel Deykin Award for Outstanding Mentor in 2021, and currently serves as primary mentor for two VA HSR Career Development Awardees (CDAs) and secondary mentor for six other VA CDAs. In addition, Dr. Hamilton is a Professor-in-Residence at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and serves as Director of the UCLA Semel Institute's Implementation Science and Practice Hub. She also is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.