Sarah D. Mills

Dr. Sarah D. Mills is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, with membership in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. She specializes in tobacco control, health disparities, and measurement validation, focusing on how neighborhood environments and public policy exacerbate racial and socioeconomic disparities in tobacco use. Her work includes validating scales like the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 among Hispanic populations.

Dr. Mills earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the San Diego State University/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program, her MPH in Epidemiology from San Diego State University, and her BA in Psychology from Columbia University. Her research is funded by an NIH K01 award, supporting microsimulation modeling to assess the impact of menthol cigarette bans on health outcomes.

Her research interests span tobacco regulatory science, health equity, and measurement development. Key contributions include documenting disproportionate menthol cigarette advertising in Black communities and evaluating policies to reduce youth tobacco access. She teaches Scale Development Methods in the doctoral program, emphasizing psychometric evaluation.

• Awards: Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award (K01) from NCI/FDA
• Grants: NIH-funded K01 for modeling menthol cigarette ban impacts
• Advising: Mentors students in health behavior research and measurement

Dr. Mills collaborates with the DECIPHeR Alliance on implementation science and contributes to the Gillings School’s efforts to reduce disparities in heart and lung disease through interdisciplinary work.