"As a department, we continue to place health equity front and center, and it's my goal to have our research agenda reflect that," said Dr. Chambers, who began his career at Einstein and Montefiore in 2007. "There's an understanding that if we are going to value all lives, then we need to address the social determinants that put extra burden on the most vulnerable in our population to achieve overall health and wellness, and so we need to do more."

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted societal inequities that have led to a disproportionate rate of infections and deaths among minority populations, Dr. Chambers noted. Many people of lower-income and people of color were deemed essential in the pandemic but faced challenges with safe transportation, overcrowded housing that did not allow for social distancing, and lack of proper personal protective equipment. Yet, even without a pandemic, food insecurity, lack of access to care, structural racism, and other factors lead to poor health.

"Are we trying to close racial and ethnic disparities that lead to those adverse health outcomes? Are we asking research questions that speak to closing those gaps? How do we support investigators interested in those questions?" Dr. Chambers asked. "One of the things I want to do is lead the development of a health equity research lab, which would provide dedicated resources at Einstein to support interdisciplinary studies of social determinants of health and the inequities that result in harmful outcomes for some people."

Dr. Chambers also said he would like to help build a diverse pipeline of investigators, including medical students, residents, and fellows, to explore health equity research questions.

"I'm very happy to appoint Dr. Chambers to this position. He has been a productive member of our research faculty since 2007 and has collaborated widely with other investigators at Montefiore-Einstein," said Peter Selwyn, M.D., M.P.H., chair of family and social medicine and professor of medicine, of epidemiology & population health, and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. "In addition to conducting important original research, he is a valued and sought-after teacher and mentor. I know Earle will do an outstanding job, and will help expand our research efforts in social determinants and health equity in the Bronx and beyond."

Dr. Chambers earned his B.S. in biology from Duke University, his master's in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, and his Ph.D. in epidemiology with a concentration on chronic disease from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the New York Obesity Research Center (now the New York Obesity Nutrition Center), at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, before joining the Einstein faculty. He has received grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for studies on how social determinants of health, such as housing and neighborhood conditions, affect behaviors and health outcomes for patients, both as individuals and as part of larger communities.

About Albert Einstein College of MedicineAlbert Einstein College of Medicineis one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2019-20 academic year, Einstein is home to 724 M.D.students, 158 Ph.D. students, 106 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 265 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,800 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2019, Einstein received more than $178 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centersat Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States through Montefiore and an affiliation network involving hospitals and medical centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island. For more information, please visit http://www.einstein.yu.edu, read our blog, followus on Twitter, like us on Facebook,and view us on YouTube.

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Earle Chambers, Ph.D., MPH, Appointed Director of Research in Department of Family and Social Medicine at Einstein and Montefiore - PRNewswire