Sophie Godley
Associate Director, Kilachand Honors College, Clinical Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences
Sophie Godley is an award-winning teacher, scholar, and activist. Sophie joined the Boston University School of Public Health as a full-time faculty member in July of 2010. She previously was an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Community Health Sciences, where she taught courses on adolescent health and sexual health. Sophie has been working in the field of public health since 1993, and her areas of expertise include implementing science-based prevention programs and incorporating popular media into public health education. Sophie served as the deputy director of the AIDS Action Committee in Massachusetts for six years, overseeing prevention and education programs. Sophie has also worked with ROCA, Inc. in Chelsea, MA, a performance-driven anti-poverty and anti-violence agency. In 2011 Sophie received the Associations of the School of Public Health/Pfizer Early Career in Public Health Teaching Award. In May of 2017 Sophie received one of the University’s highest awards in teaching, the Metcalf Award.
Prior to her work at the AIDS Action Committee, she was director of the Office of Adolescent Health and Youth Development at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health from 1999 to 2004. She received her B.A. from Smith College, her Master’s degree in public health from the University of Washington, and her doctorate in public health from Boston University in 2017.
Currently Sophie teaches Introduction to Public Health for undergraduates, and courses in the Maternal and Child Health concentration, including Safer Sex in the City From Science to Policy, and Women Children and Adolescents Public Health Approaches. Sophie also teaches in the MPH core, Individual, Community and Population Health.
Sophie serves as Director of Undergraduate Education in the School of Public Health, advising students enrolled in the public health minor and the innovative 4+1 program, BUSPH’s combined BA/MPH and BS/MPH.
Sophie’s current work in the community focuses on supporting healthy sexuality in communities and schools, and supporting families and parents of adolescents.
Since 2015 Sophie has taught Seeing Poverty, a first year Kilachand seminar. She has also taught HC401, the KHC junior year research class. Sophie has had the privilege of mentoring many KHC seniors with their Keystone projects.