Amani M. Allen

Amani M. Allen is a Professor of Community Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, where she also serves as Executive Associate Dean. Her research focuses on race and socioeconomic health disparities, with particular emphasis on the measurement and study of racism as a social determinant of health. Dr. Allen integrates concepts, theories, and methods from epidemiology and the social and biomedical sciences to examine racial inequalities in health across populations, places, and the life course.

Dr. Allen considers herself more "exposure" than "outcomes" focused, examining social factors such as race and socioeconomic position as foundational exposures that create and preserve health disparities. Her work employs mixed methods approaches to understand how social exposures determine life experiences differently for various social groups and how these differences become embodied to impact mental and physical health.

• Research Focus: Race, stress, and health; racism as a social determinant; health disparities; mixed methods research
• Key Projects: African American Women's Heart & Health Study; Bay Area Heart Health Study; National Validation Study on Measures of Anticipatory Racism Stress
• Methodological Approach: Integrates quantitative and qualitative data to address internal validity challenges in health disparities research

Dr. Allen's publications appear in top scientific journals including the American Journal of Public Health, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and Psychoneuroendocrinology. Her recent paper examining racial discrimination and biological dysregulation among African American women was named Editor's Choice. Her work has been featured in major media outlets including NPR, CBS, The Guardian, and the SF Chronicle.

• Chancellor's Award for Institutional Excellence and Equity (2025)
• Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring award at UC Berkeley
• Editor's Choice award in Psychoneuroendocrinology

As Principal Investigator of the HEARTs Research Group, Dr. Allen mentors a diverse team of undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty collaborators. She recently assumed leadership of the Evidence for Action program (E4A) as its Director, succeeding Dr. Nancy Adler. Dr. Allen is actively involved in developing restorative justice training programs through RePAIR and advancing Berkeley Public Health's antiracism-focused curriculum transformation.