Courtney Cogburn

Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn is an assistant professor at the Columbia School of Social Work and a faculty affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center. Her research integrates principles and methodologies across psychology, stress physiology and social epidemiology to investigate relationships between racism-related stress and racial health disparities across the life course. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Her current research projects examine the effects of cultural racism in the media on physiological, psychological and behavioral stress reactivity and moderating effects of cognitive appraisal processes; the role of structural racism in producing disease risk; and chronic psychosocial stress exposure and related implications for understanding Black/White disparities in cardiovascular health and disease between early and late adulthood.

At the end of 2014, Dr. Cogburn received an award from the Provost’s Grants Program for Junior Faculty Who Contribute to the Diversity Goals of the University for a project titled, “Black Face to Ferguson: A Mixed Methodological Examination of Media Racism, Media Activism and Health.” In addition to her academic research, Dr. Cogburn works with the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and is a senior advisor at the International Center Advocates Against Discrimination in NYC to educate and build community activism around issues of racism and health.