Marilyn Thomas is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of General Internal Medicine and Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UCSF with an affiliation with the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.
Thomas has had many roles at UCSF. In 2014, she worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the CRANIUM study in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences with Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS. After earning her PhD in Epidemiology from UC Berkeley, Thomas returned to UCSF 2019 as a postdoctoral fellow.
As a social epidemiologist, Thomas investigates the mechanisms by which structural racism contributes to Black-White inequities in premature aging, chronic disease risk and mortality. Her research centers on Black experiences (i.e. factors that distinctively characterize Black lives in the US) in three domains: negative racial sentiment or race-based discrimination, anti-Black policing and racialized exposures in higher education. Her work integrates social theory and causal inference frameworks using longitudinal data to estimate true direct and indirect effects and targets for intervention.
Thomas is excited to continue her current collaborations and build new ones to better understand how racism “gets under the skin” to worsen health. She’s also thrilled about Co-Directing the SF BUILD program, a partnership between SF State and UCSF to enhance diversity in the biomedical workforce.
Thomas will kindly chat about her love of traveling, football (Go Niners!), dining out, guitar playing, and time with family and friends with you over a smooth glass of tequila blanco with a beer back.