Dr. Staus' doctoral work focused on moving long-term care facilities from medical to social models of care that allow frail elders to live in enriching, home-like environments. Dr. Staus recently completed a Social Medicine Case Study Project through the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard and the Social Medicine Consortium. Her case, "Vicodin as a treatment for Structural Violence", examines the current biomedical response to the injuries caused by the structural violence of racism and poverty. She recently completed a social medicine analysis of the opioid epidemic, "An epidemic in context: Opioid addiction", that examines the social, cultural, economic, political and historical context of the epidemic and highlights the importance of health care providers understanding the broad context in which mental and physical illness is created and perpetuated. Current projects include analysis of the moral narrative of lifestyle choices as the cause of chronic disease which is the dominant discourse in health care provider education programs; the epistemological reasons why the discipline of nursing refuses to engage with the problem of racism; and analysis of the problems with essentialist approaches to culture utilized in current health care provider education with a focus on multi-disciplinary strategies for moving towards socially just and emancipatory health care practice. Dr. Staus is also engaged in the Social Medicine Consortium's "Campaign Against Racism". The Minnesota chapter is focused on the relationship between racism, housing, and health. Dr.Staus has been involved with developing narrative frames regarding housing and health through a partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health and working with the local Mapping Prejudice project.