An undergraduate major in anthropology at the University of Michigan (1974), she received her Doctor of Philosophy in medical anthropology from Brown University and then served as Research Fellow at the Harvard University Medical School from 1984 to 1990.
She is widely known for her work on vulnerable populations in lowand middle-income countries, and is particularly known for her work on people with disabilities in the developing world. Her doctoral dissertation, published by Harvard University Press in 1985, Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha’s Vineyard, is considered a classic work in the disability studies and ethnographic literatures. Nora Groce has undertaken applied research on subjects such as poverty and disability, domestic violence, the impact of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome on people with disabilities, disabled populations’ access to health care and social justice.
Among her most recent work is her publication on disabled street beggars in Ethiopia (2013), and on the Disability and Development Gap (2015).
Author of over 250 journal articles, books and reports, she is a regular advisor for United Nations agencies, national governments and non-governmental organizations. She sits on a number of scientific advisory panels and review boards.
Professor Groce is also known widely for her teaching and mentoring. While a research scientist at Harvard she regularly taught medical anthropology and international health courses.
Working with Professor Lowell Levin, she helped establish and run the Global Health Division at the Yale School of Public Health in 1991, teaching a number of courses on global health, international development and social justice.
