معرفی
Dr. Christine Gray serves as an Assistant Research Professor at Duke University's Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI), where she is a core faculty member of the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research (CHPIR). Her work focuses on social epidemiology and mental health disparities in vulnerable populations including orphaned children, sexual and gender minorities, and communities affected by discriminatory practices, with research spanning global (Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania) and domestic (North Carolina) contexts.
Her educational background includes a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MPH from Emory University. Prior to doctoral studies, she completed a three-year post-masters fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and worked at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
Dr. Gray's research examines social-environmental structures driving mental health and well-being disparities through implementation science and epidemiologic methods. Key focus areas include environmental health, maternal/child health, trauma, non-communicable diseases, and social determinants of health, with particular emphasis on intervention sustainment in resource-limited settings and structural drivers of health inequities.
Her recent publications demonstrate consistent methodological rigor across diverse contexts: mental health intervention feasibility in Kenyan schools (2024), environmental quality impacts on birth defects (2023), urban greenspace effects on psychological health in Ethiopia (2022), and HIV testing predictors among orphaned youth in East Africa (2021). These works collectively highlight her expertise in longitudinal cohort studies, implementation science frameworks, and cross-cultural mental health research with vulnerable populations.
Dr. Gray leads multiple NIH-funded projects including the SAGE study examining sustainment of school-based mental health interventions in western Kenya, the 15-year POFO longitudinal cohort of orphaned children across five countries, and the SMILE study establishing cohorts of sexual and gender minorities. She also directs a North Carolina feasibility study on SGM recruitment and collaborates with the Environmental Protection Agency on place-based equity research investigating how historical redlining influences present-day health outcomes through gentrification pathways.
Her primary research hub is the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research at DGHI, where she coordinates international teams across Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, and Tanzania. Current initiatives integrate community-engaged approaches with advanced epidemiologic methods to address mental health intervention gaps and structural determinants of health disparities in both global and domestic settings.
