Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences
Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion
Fielding School of Public Health
UCLA
Dr. Thomas Tobin’s research examines the social, psychological, and biological (i.e., biopsychosocial) pathways to health and longevity among Black Americans. As a trained medical sociologist, Dr. Thomas Tobin integrates traditional sociological theories with perspectives from public health, social psychology, medicine, and the biological sciences to better understand the causes and consequences of long-standing Black-White differences in health. She utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods to consider the multiple ways that racial minority status shapes the everyday experiences and health trajectories of Black Americans across the life course.
Dr. Thomas Tobin’s program of research makes conceptual and empirical contributions to three interrelated areas of inquiry: (1) psychosocial pathways to embodiment; (2) health risks and resources across the life course; and (3) racialized stress and coping processes among Black Americans.
