Leigha Vilen

she/her/hers

Leigha holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in health policy and management and in theatre. At CHDR, Leigha helped develop the methodology for creating residential histories for decedent research subjects using public records, and she continues to work with the residential history team in implementing that methodology at scale. She also provides administrative support to the Neighborhoods Study and research support for CHDR’s health policy projects.

Before coming to CHDR, Leigha worked on the development and dissemination of community-based chronic disease management programs for older adults. She is particularly interested in how policies outside of the traditional realm of “healthcare” can impact health and wellness. Leigha is currently pursuing a law degree in addition to her work at CHDR and hopes to use it to provide direct representation to those experiencing legal barriers to healthy living.