Brittany N. Morey, PhD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Public Health at University of California, Irvine. Dr. Morey’s research focuses on how structural racism shapes racial and ethnic health inequities. Much of this work focuses on how social and physical environments contribute to health inequities, especially for Pacific Islanders, Native Hawaiians, and Asian Americans. Her work also studies how U.S. immigration policies and anti-immigrant sentiments contribute to health disparities among broad populations of color. Overall, the goal of her research is to understand how society creates health inequities along the lines of race, ethnicity, nativity, and immigration status. With this understanding, we can create better policies and programs to address and undo the patterns of poor health we see today.
Currently, Dr. Morey is working as a co-investigator on multiple grants funded by the National Institutes of Health, including the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Cancer Institute. These projects are examining the social determinants of health inequities among Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans. Another project examines how ethnic enclaves and neighborhood sociocultural institutions affect health outcomes for Asian American and Hispanic women with breast cancer. She also received funding to conduct research on how neighborhood social environments and environmental air toxicants affect respiratory health for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander sub-populations. Dr. Morey is a faculty advisor to the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Data Policy Lab housed at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. With funding from the California Collaborative for Public Health Research, Dr. Morey and the Lab collaborated with NHPI community partners to conduct the California Pacific Islander Well-Being And Ecomonimc Survey (CAPIWAVES), a statewide survey of mental health and socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on California’s NHPI population.
Dr. Morey sits on the board of directors for the Center for the Pacific Asian Family, a non-profit organization in Los Angeles that addresses the root causes of gender and family violence in Asian and Pacific Islander communities. In her free time, she enjoys exercising, hanging out with her spouse, 3 kids, and 2 dogs.
Academic Employment
2024 – present Associate Professor at UC Irvine Department of Health, Society, & Behavior
2019 – 2024 Assistant Professor at UC Irvine Department of Health, Society, & Behavior
2017 – 2019 Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Riverside School of Public Policy
Education
Brittany N. Morey earned her Ph.D. (2017) and her M.P.H. (2011) in Community Health Sciences from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.