Project Title: Identity Influences on Psychosocial Traits, Biologic Age, and Cardiovascular Disease Disparities
Position: Assistant Professor
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Funding NIH Institute/Center: National Institute on Aging
Grant ID: R00AG075327
Ganga S. Bey hails from Cleveland, Ohio, where she was raised along with her nine siblings. Named after a holy river known for its healing waters, Dr. Bey has always felt a calling toward the healing professions. A medical anthropology course during her sophomore year at Princeton University sparked a passion for understanding and addressing the social causes of illness, particular among marginalized populations. She ultimately majored in anthropology and African American studies before receiving her MPH from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts. As a social epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she draws on her love for social science, centering on advancing theoretical frameworks for health disparities research through strengthening the integration of social, social psychological, and biological approaches in epidemiologic methods. Dr. Bey’s research currently focuses on understanding psychosocial and epigenetic mechanisms that influence disparate aging rates between dominant-status and marginalized persons with the goal of identifying novel points of intervening on the health consequences of structural inequity. Recognizing the multigenerational effort required to achieve this goal, Dr. Bey is enthusiastic to continue advocacy for and mentorship of scholars underrepresented in the sciences as a MOSAIC scholar.