Thu Thi Nguyen

Thu Thi Nguyen, Sc.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Her work focuses on social determinants of health, particularly examining how racism and discrimination influence health disparities. She leads the interdisciplinary Big Data for Health Equity (BD4HE) collaborative, which integrates big data and machine learning to address health inequities. Dr. Nguyen holds a Sc.D. in Social Epidemiology from Harvard University, an MSPH from UNC Gillings School, and a BA from Stanford University.

Her research includes NIH-funded projects investigating area-level racial bias through social media data and its impact on birth outcomes. She has pioneered novel measures like place-level racial climate derived from Twitter data. Key awards include American Heart Association funding and NIH Loan Repayment Program support. Dr. Nguyen's work spans health care discrimination biomarkers, temporal trends in racial sentiment, and protective factors against racism's health effects.

BD4HE fosters cross-institutional collaboration among faculty, trainees, and students to advance health equity theories and methods. Her research also explores social and built environmental impacts on disparities, emphasizing training and mentorship in innovative methodologies. Dr. Nguyen's grants include R01, K99/R00, and AHA fellowships, demonstrating sustained federal and institutional backing for her transformative public health research.