Marcella Nunez-Smith
Marcella Nunez-Smith is an American physician-scientist. She is C.N.H Long Professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine, where she serves as the inaugural Associate Dean for Health Equity Research and founding director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center. She also holds joint appointments at the Yale School of Public Health and the Yale School of Management. After co-chairing the Biden-Harris transition’s COVID-19 Advisory Board from November 2020 to January 2021, she was selected by President Joe Biden to serve as Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team and Chair of the Presidential COVID-19 Equity Task Force.
Marcella Nunez-Smith
Position established
Position established
Position abolished
Early life and education[edit]
Nunez-Smith grew up in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands,[1] where she attended All Saints Cathedral School. Her mother was a nursing professor who taught community health, and one of her godparents was a surgeon.[2] Nunez-Smith obtained her Bachelor of Arts in biological anthropology and psychology from Swarthmore College in 1996. She attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and graduated in 2001.[3] Nunez-Smith was a resident in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She completed her Master of Health Science at Yale University in 2006.[3]
Research[edit]
Nunez-Smith's research centers around health and healthcare equity for structurally marginalized communities.[3] In particular, she has studied adverse health and healthcare outcomes for those living in the Caribbean U.S. territories, including studies that show U.S. territory residents have a 17% greater risk of dying after a heart attack compared to those living on the U.S. mainland[13] She has established the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network (ECHORN) to study early risk and protective factors for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes in the eastern Caribbean.[14][15] Since its inception, ECHORN has both expanded research and leadership capacity in the region, and served as an international model for reducing the global burden of non-communicable diseases among structurally marginalized communities.[16]
Nunez-Smith has developed a tool to assess patient reported experiences of discrimination in healthcare.[3][17] Nunez-Smith has also investigated the experiences, promotion, and retention of diverse students and faculty at U.S. medical schools.[18] Her research is funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities as well as other organizations.[3][19][14]