Iulia Fratila, PhD

Dr. Iulia Fratila is an assistant professor in the Department of Global and Community Health. Fratila’s research interests have practical and scholarly contributions related to health promotion, health education (e.g., drug education, sexual health education) and leisure and health studies. She is a knowledgeable scholar on the role of leisure and recreation in health and well-being with a life course approach. 

Fratila is a passionate educator that seeks to prepare students for their professional careers in public and community health. Specifically, Dr. Fratila emphasizes evidence-based decision making and developing student research skills. Additionally, Fratila prioritizes creating and teaching inclusivity in the classroom. Her teaching repertoire includes classes such as social determinants of health, public health, ethics in health sciences, and research methods.

Before coming to Mason, Fratila was a faculty member in the Department of Health Sciences at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.

Publications

• Berdychevsky, L. & Fratila, I. (2023). Young adults’ acceptance of later-life sexuality is predicted by their general sexual attitudes and viewing sex as leisure. Leisure Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2023.2273382  
• Fratila, I., & Berdychevsky, L. (2021). Aiming ‘high’ in college: The meanings of recreational drug consumption in/as leisure and existential authenticity. Leisure Sciences, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2021.1957728
• Clary, L. K., Habbal, M., Smith, C. D. & Fratila, I. (2021). The green sheep: Exploring the perceived risks and benefits of cannabis among young veterans. Cannabis, 4(2), 31- 46. https://doi.org/10.26828/cannabis/2021.02.003
• Fratila, I., & Berdychevsky, L. (2020). Understanding drugs as leisure through the (de)differentiation lens and the dialectic of Logos- and Eros-modernity. Leisure Studies, 40(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1843694

Professional Affiliations/Memberships

• Book Review editor – International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure
• Associate editor – Leisure Sciences Journal

Degrees

• PhD, Recreation, Sport, and Tourism, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• MBA, Business (Concentration in Sport and Entertainment Management), University of South Florida
• BS, Recreation Management, Western Michigan University