For February’s CHEA Spotlight, we are featuring another one of our impressive CHEA fellows: Emmanuella Asabor! Emmanuella is an MD/PhD candidate studying epidemiology at Yale University. She received her MPhil in African Studies from the University of Cambridge. Additionally, she is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar. 

Earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, she studied the interactions between structural racism and how people in minoritized communities experienced the pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated many already existing inequalities, and she sought to illuminate that relationship. Emmanuella is especially passionate about Black and immigrant/refugee communities. This is reflected in her work as she maintains a social justice lens while navigating academia and medicine. In 2020, one of her studies discussed the disproportionate rate of police violence against unarmed Black people, concluding that police violence is a public health issue. 

In January, she and Dr. Elle Lett, December’s CHEA Spotlight, published a paper titled Conceptualizing, Contextualizing, and Operationalizing Race in Quantitative Health Sciences Research in the Annals of Family Medicine. The paper identifies pitfalls and provides recommendations on how to appropriately engage in scholarship that studies racial health inequities. Race is often described as a risk factor or measure of biological difference. Their paper addresses why instead, race should be used as a proxy for exposure to racism.  

Recently, she was recognized by the Forbes 30 Under 30 2022 list in healthcare! She was recognized for her impactful research and for piloting a program at Yale to ensure access to primary care for asylum seekers. This recognition is well-earned and well-deserved. Congratulations, Emmanuella! You are doing important work and we are proud of you.