About

Amani M. Nuru-Jeter is a Professor of Community Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. 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. Her broad research interest is to integrate concepts, theories, and methods from epidemiology and the social and biomedical sciences to examine racial inequalities in health across populations, across place, and over the life course. Dr. Nuru-Jeter considers herself more 'exposure' than 'outcomes' focused, examining social factors such as race and socioeconomic position as exposures that influence health disparities. Her work employs a mix of quantitative and qualitative data to understand racial health disparities, inform the measurement of social determinants, and address internal validity challenges in health disparities research. She is Principal Investigator of the African American Women's Heart & Health Study, which investigates the association between social and environmental stressors and various health outcomes among African American women in the Bay Area, and Co-Investigator of the Bay Area Heart Health Study, focusing on similar associations among Black men. Her research has covered topics including doctor-patient race-concordance, the intersection of race, socioeconomic status, and gender on health risks, racial segregation, income inequality, and racism stress. Dr. Nuru-Jeter has published extensively in top scientific journals and her work has been featured in various media outlets. She has received numerous awards for teaching and mentoring, including the Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring award at UC Berkeley. Her educational background includes a BS in Biology from the University of Maryland, an MPH from George Washington University, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. She was also a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at UCSF and Berkeley.

Selected publications

• A formidable scholar, friend, and mentor: Celebrating the life and work of Lonnie Snowden

  American Journal of Community Psychology · 2025-11-18

  articleOpen access

  In September of 2025, the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley-where Dr. Lonnie Snowden was a faculty member for two decades-organized a research symposium to reflect his life's work and to honor his outsized influence on the field of mental health disparities research and on the lives and careers of many mental health policy and services scholars. The symposium, and the events surrounding it, revealed a profound truth about Dr. Snowden's commitment to community psychology: Through his work, not only did he uncover important and difficult insights about disparities in mental health treatment for vulnerable populations with rigor and relevance, but he also orchestrated and developed an intergenerational community of scholars to carry that work forward. Through his mentorship, friendship, and multidisciplinary collaborative research, the community of scholars he has grown and mentored over the last 40 years generates impact equal to that of his scholarship, continuing his legacy in improving access to high quality mental health treatment and reducing mental health disparities. Stories from colleagues, former students, post-doctoral fellows, and his family, illustrate how Dr. Snowden made every person he worked with, especially those he mentored, feel special-seen, valued, and heard. This unique and incredibly important talent is perhaps the biggest part of Dr. Snowden's legacy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Associations between childhood socioeconomic characteristics, race, and risk of adverse childhood experiences in a population-based sample of US-born non-Hispanic Black and White women

  BMC Public Health · 2025-05-02 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Socioeconomically disadvantaged and racially minoritized populations bear an elevated risk of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), but few studies evaluate whether racial disparities in ACEs persist within socioeconomic strata. We examine the effect of both childhood socioeconomic characteristics and race on ACE burden. METHODS: Data are from a population-based sample (N = 1381) of US-born non-Hispanic Black (NHB) and White (NHW) women aged 20-49 years in Metropolitan Detroit and Los Angeles County, 2011-2014. Recalled data on ACEs aged < 13 years, childhood household socioeconomic position (chSEP) aged < 13 years, childhood neighborhood poverty rate (cNPR) aged 6 years (based on US Census tract), and covariates were collected during in-person interviews. ACEs are parameterized as an index (i.e., number of adversities, range 0-12) and as individual adversities. We estimate associations between cNPR (≥ 20%/10- < 20%/< 10%), chSEP index (low/medium/high), race (NHB/NHW), joint cNPR/race, and joint chSEP/race and ACEs using weighted logistic regression, to calculate odds ratios (OR), and using weighted zero-inflated Poisson regression, to calculate estimated ACE index. RESULTS: Participants who lived in poorer neighborhoods (i.e., cNPR ≥ 20%) or households (i.e., low chSEP index) during childhood reported significantly more ACEs than participants in wealthier neighborhoods (i.e., cNPR < 10%) or households (i.e., high chSEP index). NHB vs NHW participants overall had a higher mean ACE index (3.18 vs 2.25, respectively, p < 0.05), but NHB and NHW participants who lived in poorer neighborhoods or households had a similarly elevated ACE burden (e.g., estimated ACE index for low chSEP was 3.63 [95%CI 1.19-4.97] and 4.16 [95%CI 3.68-4.65], respectively). NHB participants experienced significant discrimination at all levels of cNPR and chSEP, which contributed to their overall increased ACE risk. CONCLUSIONS: US-born NHB and NHW girls residing in poorer neighborhoods or households had a similarly substantially elevated burden of ACEs, indicating childhood poverty is a crucial determinant of ACE risk, independent of race.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A hypothetical intervention to reduce inequities in anxiety for Multiracial people: simulating an intervention on childhood adversity

  American Journal of Epidemiology · 2024-05-25 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Multiracial people report higher mean Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) scores and prevalence of anxiety than other racial groups. Studies using statistical interactions to test if associations between ACEs and anxiety are greater for this group than others have shown mixed results. Using data from waves 1 (1995-1997) through 4 (2008-2009) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we simulated a stochastic intervention over 1000 resampled datasets to estimate the race-specific cases averted per 1000 of anxiety if all racial groups had the same exposure distribution of ACEs as Whites. Simulated cases averted were greatest for the Multiracial group, (median = -4.17 cases per 1000; 95% CI; -7.42 to -1.86). The model also predicted smaller risk reductions for Black participants (-0.76; 95% CI, -1.53 to -0.19). CIs around estimates for other racial groups included the null. An intervention to reduce racial disparities in exposure to ACEs could help reduce the inequitable burden of anxiety on the Multiracial population. Stochastic methods support consequentialist approaches to racial health equity, and can encourage greater dialogue between public health researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. This article is part of a Special Collection on Mental Health.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Historical Redlining, Contemporary Gentrification, and Severe Maternal Morbidity in California, 2005-2018

  JAMA Network Open · 2024-09-23 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Importance: Historically redlined neighborhoods may experience disinvestment, influencing their likelihood of gentrification, a process of neighborhood (re-)development that unequally distributes harms and benefits by race and class. Understanding the combined outcomes of redlining and gentrification informs how the mutually constitutive systems of structural racism and racial capitalism affect pregnancy outcomes. Objective: To examine if historical redlining and contemporary gentrification is associated with increased severe maternal morbidity (SMM) odds. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study used data from a statewide population-based sample of all live hospital births at 20 weeks' gestation or more between 2005 and 2018 in California. Analysis was conducted from March 2023 to January 2024. Exposure: Redlining (as characterized by the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation mortgage security maps) and displacement (using present-day sociodemographic and housing market information). Main Outcomes and Measures: Mixed-effects logistic regression models were used to assess the association of census tract-level exposure to historical redlining and contemporary gentrification with increased SMM odds, adjusting for sociodemographic and pregnancy related factors. Outcome classification was based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention SMM index, which defines SMM as having any of the 21 procedures and diagnoses based on the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision and International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision codes. Results: The study sample included 1 554 837 births (median [SD] maternal age, 29.0 [6.4] years; 3464 American Indian or Alaskan Native [0.2%], 224 774 Asian [14.5%], 132 240 Black [8.5%], 880 104 Hispanic [56.6%], 312 490 White [20.1%]), with 22 993 cases of SMM (1.4%). Residents in historically redlined neighborhoods that were undergoing gentrification or displacement were more likely to be Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaskan Native. Independent of individual-level characteristics, SMM odds were greater for individuals living in redlined neighborhoods that experienced displacement (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.14-1.28) and in redlined neighborhoods undergoing gentrification (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.13-1.29) compared with those in continuously advantaged neighborhoods. Conclusions and Relevance: Findings from this cross-sectional study demonstrate that the legacies of redlining, intertwined with current dynamics of displacement and gentrification, affect SMM. Place-based sociopolitical mechanisms that inequitably distribute resources may be important intervention points to address structural drivers of adverse pregnancy outcomes and their racial inequities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• “It’s The Skin You’re In”: African-American Women Talk About Their Experiences of Racism. An Exploratory Study to Develop Measures of Racism for Birth Outcome Studies

  UNC Libraries · 2020-11-05

  articleOpen access

  Stress due to experiences of racism could contribute to African-American women's adverse birth outcomes, but systematic efforts to measure relevant experiences among childbearing women have been limited. We explored the racism experiences of childbearing African-American women to inform subsequent development of improved measures for birth outcomes research.

  PublisherDOI

• The Role of Racial Identity and Implicit Racial Bias in Self-Reported Racial Discrimination: Implications for Depression Among African American Men

  UNC Libraries · 2020-04-18

  articleOpen access

  Racial discrimination is conceptualized as a psychosocial stressor that has negative implications for mental health. However, factors related to racial identity may influence whether negative experiences are interpreted as instances of racial discrimination and subsequently reported as such in survey instruments, particularly given the ambiguous nature of contemporary racism. Along these lines, dimensions of racial identity may moderate associations between racial discrimination and mental health outcomes. This study examined relationships between racial discrimination, racial identity, implicit racial bias, and depressive symptoms among African American men between 30 and 50 years of age (n = 95). Higher racial centrality was associated with greater reports of racial discrimination, while greater implicit anti-Black bias was associated with lower reports of racial discrimination. In models predicting elevated depressive symptoms, holding greater implicit anti-Black bias in tandem with reporting lower racial discrimination was associated with the highest risk. Results suggest that unconscious as well as conscious processes related to racial identity are important to consider in measuring racial discrimination, and should be integrated in studies of racial discrimination and mental health.

  PublisherDOI

• Relative Roles of Race Versus Socioeconomic Position in Studies of Health Inequalities: A Matter of Interpretation

  Annual Review of Public Health · 2018-01-12 · 146 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  An abundance of research has documented health inequalities by race and socioeconomic position (SEP) in the United States. However, conceptual and methodological challenges complicate the interpretation of study findings, thereby limiting progress in understanding health inequalities and in achieving health equity. Fundamental to these challenges is a lack of clarity about what race is and the implications of that ambiguity for scientific inquiry. Additionally, there is wide variability in how SEP is conceptualized and measured, resulting in a lack of comparability across studies and significant misclassification of risk. The objectives of this review are to synthesize the literature regarding common approaches to examining race and SEP health inequalities and to discuss the conceptual and methodological challenges associated with how race and SEP have been employed in public health research. Addressing health inequalities has become increasingly important as the United States trends toward becoming a majority-minority nation. Recommendations for future research are presented.

  PublisherDOI

• Social Identity and Discrimination in Religious/Spiritual Influences on Health

  Religion, spirituality and health: a social scientific approach · 2018-01-01 · 16 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Late Adolescent User Experiences with Online Sexual Health Resources: A Qualitative Study

  American Journal of Sexuality Education · 2018-10-02 · 8 citations

  articleSenior author

  Adolescents rely on the internet as a primary source for sexual health information. Understanding users’ assessments of trust and credibility in online materials may help inform interventions. Cognitive interviews with web observations were conducted with late adolescent internet users (n = 30). Web activity was tracked and transcripts analyzed using modified grounded theory. Sexual health information is found online without attempts to locate specific websites. Personal stories are preferred for learning about sexual identity. Teen-friendly-styled sites were avoided. Information found online was validated with sexuality education and life experiences. Practitioners and educators should prioritize developing online cues that communicate credibility to adolescents.

  PublisherDOI

• The Role of Racial Identity and Implicit Racial Bias in Self-Reported Racial Discrimination: Implications for Depression Among African American Men

  Journal of Black Psychology · 2017-02-07 · 52 citations

  article

  Racial discrimination is conceptualized as a psychosocial stressor that has negative implications for mental health. However, factors related to racial identity may influence whether negative experiences are interpreted as instances of racial discrimination and subsequently reported as such in survey instruments, particularly given the ambiguous nature of contemporary racism. Along these lines, dimensions of racial identity may moderate associations between racial discrimination and mental health outcomes. This study examined relationships between racial discrimination, racial identity, implicit racial bias, and depressive symptoms among African American men between 30 and 50 years of age ( n = 95). Higher racial centrality was associated with greater reports of racial discrimination, while greater implicit anti-Black bias was associated with lower reports of racial discrimination. In models predicting elevated depressive symptoms, holding greater implicit anti-Black bias in tandem with reporting lower racial discrimination was associated with the highest risk. Results suggest that unconscious as well as conscious processes related to racial identity are important to consider in measuring racial discrimination, and should be integrated in studies of racial discrimination and mental health.

  PublisherDOI

Labs

• UC Berkeley Public HealthPI

Awards & honors

• Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring at the University o…