My research is organized around two interconnected focal areas: (1) early-life environments and biological aging, and (2) social determinants of chronic disease. My current projects aim to expand my research within these domains, ultimately integrating the two to better understand how early-life environments influence chronic disease risk across the life course. In this work, I focus on elucidating the underlying biological pathways linking early-life exposures to later-life health outcomes and on identifying high-risk groups and modifiable intervention targets. This work also informs an emerging focus on community-engaged approaches to health equity and implementation science. The projects below represent active and ongoing lines of inquiry within my program of research.
Educational Contexts and Biological Aging
This project uses epigenetic clocks and national longitudinal cohort data to examine how educational contexts and structural features of school environments during childhood and adolescence become biologically embedded to shape aging trajectories and chronic disease risk across the life course.
Discrimination and Chronic Disease
Using longitudinal data from the Black Women’s Experiences Living with Lupus (BeWELL) Study, this project examines how multilevel experiences of discrimination and structural racism — from interpersonal encounters to residential segregation — drive racial disparities in lupus progression, inflammatory burden, and comorbid conditions; and their implications for other chronic diseases.
Neighborhood Gun Violence and Adolescent Health
This project investigates how adolescent exposure to neighborhood gun violence shapes both biological aging and respiratory health outcomes over the transition to emerging adulthood. Current work examines biological aging and asthma burden as distinct but related health consequences of neighborhood gun violence exposure.
Community-Engaged Research
An emerging line of work applies community-engaged approaches to advance health equity in underserved populations. This work integrates intersectional frameworks, implementation science, and structural determinants to develop research that is both scientifically rigorous and meaningfully connected to communities most affected by health disparities.
Connor D. Martz, PhD 