Marcella Nunez-Smith

Marcella Nunez-Smith is an American physician. She is an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine, where she is also Associate Dean for Health Equity Research and founding director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center. She is one of three co-chairs of U.S. president Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board. She was also selected by Biden to lead the administration's task force on health equity.

Marcella Nunez-Smith
Chair of the COVID-19 Equity Task Force
Assumed office
January 20, 2021
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byOffice established
Co-Chair of the COVID-19 Advisory Board
Assumed office
January 20, 2021
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byOffice established
Personal details
BornSaint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
EducationSwarthmore College (BA)
Thomas Jefferson University (MD)
Yale University (MHS)
OccupationPhysician

Early life and education

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]

Career

Nunez-Smith is an associate professor of internal medicine, public health, and management at Yale School of Medicine.[3] She is also the founding director at Equity Research and Innovation Center, Director of the Center for Research Engagement, Director of the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale University, and Deputy Director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.[3]

In August 2020, Nunez-Smith was named Associate Dean for Health Equity Research at Yale.[4]

COVID-19

Nunez-Smith served as chair of the community sub-committee of the ReOpen Connecticut Advisory Group giving expert advice to the state of Connecticut.[5] She has also been working with community partners in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to overcome obstacles in testing, self-isolation, and quarantine.[6]

A paper submitted in May 2020 of which Nunez-Smith was senior co-author considered state-level reporting of race and ethnicity of Covid cases and outcomes in the United States, for data up to April 2020, and found reporting from many states of this dimension to have been weak or lacking -- an important omission, the paper argued, as from the data available it estimated that members of Black populations had encountered a 3.6 times greater risk of death, and members of Latin populations a 1.9 times greater risk of death, compared to White populations.[7]

In November 2020, Nunez-Smith was named as one of three co-chairs of U.S. president-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board.[8][9] In January 2021, Biden appointed Nunez-Smith as the leader of his administration's task force on health equity. [10] [11]

Research

Nunez-Smith's studies 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[12] She has established the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network to study early risk and protective factors for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes in the eastern Caribbean.[13][14]

Nunez-Smith also developed a tool to assess patient reported experiences of discrimination in healthcare.[3][15]

Nunez-Smith has also investigated the experiences, promotion, and retention of diverse students and faculty at U.S. medical schools.[16]

Her research is funded by and the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.[3][17][13]

References
  1. "Former Scholars Use Award as a Springboard to Expand Their Research". medicine.yale.edu. November 10, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  2. "A champion of health care fairness". medicine.yale.edu. June–July 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  3. "Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS". medicine.yale.edu. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  4. "Marcella Nunez-Smith Named Associate Dean for Health Equity Research". medicine.yale.edu. August 14, 2020. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  5. Brita Belli (May 4, 2020), Yale expertise tapped to help guide Connecticut’s reopening strategy Archived 2020-06-12 at the Wayback Machine, Yale News
  6. "NIH Supports Two Yale-based Projects to Address COVID-19 Population Disparities". medicine.yale.edu. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  7. Gross, Cary P.; Essien, Utibe R.; Pasha, Saamir; Gross, Jacob R.; Wang, Shi-yi; Nunez-Smith, Marcella (August 2020). "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Population-Level Covid-19 Mortality". Journal of General Internal Medicine. 35 (10): 3097–3099. doi:10.1007/s11606-020-06081-w. ISSN 0884-8734. PMC 7402388. PMID 32754782.
  8. Lambert, Ben (November 7, 2020). "Report: Yale professor to co-chair Biden's COVID task force". New Haven Register. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  9. Feuer, Will (November 7, 2020). "President-elect Joe Biden to announce Covid task force on Monday". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  10. "How Biden's new health-equity advisor will take on the pandemic". Fortune. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  11. Rabin, Roni Caryn (January 8, 2021). "Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith Takes Aim at Racial Gaps in Health Care". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  12. "Death Rate From Heart Attack Higher in U.S. Territories Than on Mainland". medicine.yale.edu. June 27, 2011. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  13. "Studying heart disease, cancer and diabetes in eastern Caribbean". medicine.yale.edu. September 22, 2011. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  14. "Closing gaps in health outcomes". medicine.yale.edu. February 4, 2016. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  15. "Former Scholars Use Award as a Springboard to Expand Their Research". medicine.yale.edu. November 10, 2015. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  16. Office of Public Affairs & Communications (January 2, 2007). "Race Impacts Professional Lives of Physicians of African Descent". medicine.yale.edu. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  17. "NIH Supports Two Yale-based Projects to Address COVID-19 Population Disparities". medicine.yale.edu. October 1, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
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