Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS

Dr. Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS, is an Associate Professor at the Yale School of Medicine, Associate Professor at the Yale School of Public Health, Director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center, Director of the Center for Research Engagement, Core Faculty in the National Clinician Scholars Program, and Deputy Director at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Nunez-Smith’s research focuses on promoting healthcare equity for vulnerable populations with an emphasis on healthcare workforce development, patient assessment of healthcare experiences, and healthcare system strengthening to address chronic disease in low and middle resource settings. She is the principal investigator on several NIH and foundation-funded research projects, including an NIH-fund project to develop a tool to assess patient reported experiences of discrimination in healthcare. In 2011 she received NIH funding to establish the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes and Research Network (ECHORN), a research collaborative across four Eastern Caribbean islands that will recruit and follow a community-dwelling adult cohort to examine chronic disease burden and to enhance health outcomes research and leadership capacity in the region. Dr. Nunez-Smith has received numerous awards including the Association of American Medical College’s Herbert W. Nicken’s Faculty Fellowship in 2008 in recognition of her contributions to healthcare workforce diversity and healthcare equity research and a 2011 American Medical Student Association’s Women Leaders in Medicine award. Dr. Nunez-Smith has a BA from Swarthmore College, an MD from Jefferson Medical College, and an MHS from Yale University.

YCCI Scholar 2006

Project: 03/01/07 - 08/31/08

Development of an instrument to measure self-reported experiences of discrimination in health care systems