Courtney D. Cogburn

Courtney D. Cogburn is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and a member of the Data Science Institute. She co-chairs the Computational Social Science Working Group and collaborates with the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University. Her research focuses on racism’s role in health disparities, using transdisciplinary approaches to address cultural racism in media, chronic stress, and cardiovascular health inequities. She pioneered the 1000 Cut Journey, a virtual reality experience exploring systemic racism, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is used to study empathy and structural competence.

Dr. Cogburn holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia, an MSW from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Education and Psychology from the same institution. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Harvard. She serves on the board of the International Center Advocates Against Discrimination and has received grants from NIH, RWJF, and the Brown Institute for Media Innovation.

Her work emphasizes innovative solutions such as VR for health equity and digital tools to visualize structural racism, with recent projects addressing telehealth equity for Black communities and housing valuation biases. She received the 2022 Faculty Service Award for her contributions to social justice and academic leadership.