Akilah Dulin

Akilah Dulin, PhD, is Chair and Professor in the Department of Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. She previously served as Associate Professor at Brown University, underscoring her national leadership in public health research. Her work centers on health equity, resilience, and community-engaged methodologies to address disparities in marginalized populations.

Dr. Dulin earned her PhD in Medical Sociology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she also completed her MS and BA. Her research examines multilevel resilience, structural racism, and social determinants of health, with a focus on dietary interventions, cardiovascular health, and HIV outcomes among African American and other underserved communities.

Her recent publications reveal a strong focus on resilience in chronic disease management, particularly in HIV and cardiovascular health. Using data from major cohorts like the Jackson Heart Study and MASALA, she investigates how psychosocial factors, neighborhood environments, and discrimination influence health outcomes. She applies mixed and qualitative methods, including concept mapping, to design and evaluate community-based interventions.

Dr. Dulin is a multiple principal investigator on several NIH-funded R01 grants and foundation-supported projects, including resilience-building dietary interventions for Southeast Asian families and studies on structural racism’s impact on criminal justice and health trajectories. She is also active in policy advocacy, contributing to Society of Behavioral Medicine position statements on nutrition, hypertension, and health equity.

• Principal Investigator, NIH R01 grants (3)
• Co-Investigator, NIH R01
• Principal Investigator, foundation grants (2)

She leads major research initiatives focused on community health, food access, and behavioral interventions, often in collaboration with interdisciplinary teams. Her lab contributes to national conversations on structural inequities and evidence-based policy solutions.