Alondra Nelson is professor of sociology at Columbia University, where she has served as the inaugural dean of social science and the director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. In September, Nelson began a five-year term as president of the Social Science Research Council, an organization dedicated to the advancement of social research for the public good. She also is the author of Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination, which was recognized in 2012 with the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award from the American Sociological Association, the Association for Humanist Sociology Book Award and the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize.