Chantel Martin, PhD

About

Dr. Chantel Martin’s research seeks to uncover social and biological mechanisms of health disparities across the life course. By identifying the long-term effects of early life stressors, such as neighborhood deprivation, crime, residential segregation and air pollution, her multidisciplinary research aims to improve health among racial/ethnic minorities and eliminate health disparities. Dr. Chantel Martin received her PhD from UNC’s Department of Epidemiology and her MSPH from UNC-Charlotte.

Chantel Martin in the Gillings News

Research Activities

Dr. Martin’s research program brings together methodological and theoretical approaches across several disciplinary areas and domains, including social epidemiology and life course theory, reproductive, perinatal and pediatric epidemiology, and biological markers of health, including epigenetic markers of disease risk. Her work investigates how stressors during early life stages, including perinatal, infancy, childhood and adolescence become biologically embedded to impact risk of chronic disease and health disparities across the life span. Dr. Martin is currently leading multiple research studies investigating the epigenetic mechanisms linking socio-environmental stressors to chronic disease risk. One project, for example, investigates the impact of social and environmental stressors during pregnancy on early childhood cardiometabolic health disparities. In addition, Dr. Martin has several ongoing projects focusing on epigenetic markers and social stressors across longitudinal studies, including the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study (DNHS).

Dr. Martin’s research is supported by a K99/R00 Pathways to Independence Award from the NIMHD and a Social Epigenomics Research Program grant from NIMHD.

Education