Marcella Nunez-Smith facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marcella Nunez-Smith
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Nuñez-Smith attends the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities 10th Anniversary Symposium in 2020
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| Chair of the COVID-19 Equity Task Force | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2021 |
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| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Co-Chair of the COVID-19 Advisory Board | |
| In office November 9, 2020 – January 20, 2021 Serving with David A. Kessler, Vivek Murthy
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| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands |
| Education | Swarthmore College (BA) Thomas Jefferson University (MD) Yale University (MHS) |
Marcella Nunez-Smith is an American doctor and scientist. She is a professor at Yale School of Medicine. There, she helps lead research about making healthcare fair for everyone. She also teaches at other Yale schools, like the Yale School of Public Health.
President Joe Biden chose her to help fight COVID-19. She worked to make sure everyone had fair access to care during the pandemic.
Early Life and School
Marcella Nunez-Smith grew up in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. She went to All Saints Cathedral School. Her mom was a nursing professor who taught about health in communities. One of her godparents was a surgeon.
She earned her first degree from Swarthmore College in 1996. She studied biological anthropology and psychology. Then, she went to medical school at Jefferson Medical College. She graduated in 2001. After that, she trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She also earned a master's degree from Yale University in 2006.
Her Work in Medicine
Dr. Nunez-Smith is a professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine. She also teaches public health and management. She started the Equity Research and Innovation Center. This center works to make healthcare fair for all people.
In 2020, she became the Associate Dean for Health Equity Research at Yale. This means she helps guide research to make healthcare more equal.
Helping with COVID-19
Dr. Nunez-Smith gave expert advice to the state of Connecticut during the COVID-19 pandemic. She helped lead a group called the ReOpen Connecticut Advisory Group. She also worked with communities in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She helped them get more testing and safely isolate if they were sick.
In 2020, she helped write a paper about COVID-19 data. This paper showed that some groups, like Black and Latin communities, faced a higher risk of death from COVID-19. This was compared to White populations. The paper said it was important to collect better data on race and ethnicity.
In November 2020, she was chosen to help lead President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board. In 2021, President Biden asked her to lead his task force on health equity. This group advised the government on how to help communities most affected by the pandemic.
Research and Studies
Dr. Nunez-Smith's research focuses on making healthcare fair for all communities. She studies health differences in places like the Caribbean U.S. territories. For example, her studies showed that people there had a higher risk of dying after a heart attack.
She started the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network (ECHORN). This group studies things that cause or prevent diseases like cancer and heart disease. ECHORN has helped improve research in the Caribbean. It also serves as a model for reducing diseases in communities that face challenges.
Dr. Nunez-Smith also created a tool to learn about patients' experiences. This tool helps understand if patients feel they have been treated unfairly in healthcare. She also studies how to support diverse students and teachers in medical schools. Her research gets funding from important groups like the National Cancer Institute.
