women’s cardiometabolic health across the life course
Latesha K. Harris, PhD, RN
Nurse Scientist
As a nurse clinician and scientist my research focuses on women’s cardiometabolic health inequities across the life course. My long-term goal is to lead an independent program of research examining associations between social realities, psychosocial stressors (e.g., poverty, early life adversity, discrimination, violence in communities, and trauma), stress physiology and cardiometabolic disease risk in women, particularly young African American and Black women. My training uniquely positions me to collaborate with researchers to address health inequities by targeting multilevel factors such as systems of power, the social and built environments, and physiological pathways linking lived experiences and social realities to health outcomes.
Scientific Contributions
Nurse.
Scientist.
Scholar.
Lifelong Learner.
Increasing racial/ethnic diversity in nursing education. [Read more]
A diverse healthcare workforce representing various racial, ethnic, sexual, and religious identities contributes to better health outcomes for all. In her work with a diverse team of pre-doctoral students on a qualitative project to identify facilitators and barriers to recruiting and retaining racial and ethnic minorities into Ph.D. programs in Nursing, their findings can be used to develop interventions and policy recommendations to create a more diverse nursing workforce. While progress has been made to recruit a nursing workforce that reflects the nation’s population, more must be done to achieve adequate representation.
Behavioral interventions and chronic disease prevention in minority populations. [Read more]
Latesha’s earliest research experiences focused on behavioral interventions to improve cardiometabolic health among Latinas. As a Research Assistant, she worked on two behavioral interventions consisting of nutrition education, physical activity, and coping skills training. Her work in these studies has contributed to the development and evaluation of culturally tailored, community-engaged, behavioral interventions to reduce cardiometabolic disease risk in women.
Psychosocial factors related to cardiometabolic disease risk. [Read more]
Latesha’s initial contribution to the science was a systematic literature review evaluating the quality of evidence on psychosocial stressors and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in young African American women. Findings from this review suggested that exposure to adverse psychosocial factors is associated with higher body mass index and blood pressure in young adult African American women. Her emerging program of research focuses on the association between psychosocial factors and cardiometabolic risk in women. In addition to psychosocial risk factors, she has contributed to the knowledge of potentially protective psychosocial factors for CVD.
Health policy research to address women’s health disparities. [Read more]
Another line of Latesha’s research seeks to understand how existing policies and social organizations impact women’s health and health disparities. Her contribution to this area of research is essential to translate research findings into actionable health policies that will address health inequities, particularly in women.
Research Affiliations
