Dr. Conor Hammersley, PhD

Research Investigator

The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital dba Bassett Medical Center

State: NY

About

Conor Hammersley, PhD is a research scientist and principal investigator at the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH), where his work focuses on the social and structural determinants of farmer wellbeing, with particular attention to farm consolidation, identity, and community resilience. His current research examines how large-scale agricultural restructuring -- especially in the dairy sector—shapes farmers’ mental health, decision-making, and capacity for collective response during periods of acute stress such as farm exit, succession challenges, and economic volatility.

Prior to joining NYCAMH, Dr. Hammersley completed his doctoral training in Ireland, where his research centered on rural men’s mental health, farming identity, and the cultural norms that shape help-seeking and community support in agricultural settings. His work in Ireland involved extensive qualitative and community-based research with farmers and rural stakeholders, and contributed to national discussions on farmer wellbeing, suicide prevention, and the role of community-embedded supports. This experience grounded his approach in participatory methods and sensitized him to the importance of trust, legitimacy, and locally meaningful language when engaging farming communities around mental health and crisis.

At NYCAMH, Dr. Hammersley has extended this work to the U.S. context, leading mixed-methods and qualitative studies with dairy farmers in upstate New York that document how consolidation pressures are experienced not only as economic threats, but as disruptions to identity, family continuity, and community life. His recent work (currently under review) highlights farmers’ preference for informal, trusted sources of support and the limits of individual-level interventions in the absence of community capacity and collective infrastructure. Across his research there is a strong emphasis on the need to move beyond awareness-raising toward community-led, culturally attuned approaches that strengthen peer support, normalize dialogue during periods of distress, and support collective action.

Dr. Hammersley’s proposed SARE project builds directly on this body of work by adapting an existing, evidence-informed rural dialogue framework to the lived realities of dairy communities in New York. Drawing on his experience conducting formative, community-based research in agricultural settings on both sides of the Atlantic, he brings a comparative, practice-oriented perspective to the design and piloting of farmer-led interventions that aim to strengthen wellbeing, identity, and resilience in the face of ongoing agricultural change.