Dr. Courtney Thomas

Courtney S. Thomas Tobin, Ph.D., is currently an Assistant Professor in Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. As a medical sociologist, Thomas Tobin integrates traditional sociological theories with perspectives from public health, social psychology, medicine, and the biological sciences to examine the social, psychological, and biological (i.e., biopsychosocial) pathways that contribute to the health and longevity of Black Americans. Her research program has two main objectives: (1) To examine the links between mental and physical health outcomes, as well as biomarkers, to clarify the ways that social and psychological experiences become physiologically embodied, manifest into psychiatric disorders and chronic conditions, and contribute to distinct health patterns within and across racial groups. (2) To disentangle the mechanisms underlying unique health patterns among Black Americans by evaluating how psychosocial risks and resources produce distinct mental and physical health outcomes within and across racial groups.