About Dr. Merino

About Yesenia Merino, PhD, MPH

Yesenia Merino, PhD, MPH, is a public health scholar, educator, and equity leader whose career reflects a deep commitment to inclusive excellence, social justice, and community partnership. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, where she teaches graduate-level courses on health equity, critical history of public health, mixed methods, and leadership development.

With more than 25 years of experience at the intersections of health equity, education and pedagogy, and community engagement, Dr. Merino has held diverse roles in curriculum development, research, federal service, and nonprofits. She thrives when leading strategic efforts to embed equity into curricula, faculty development, and improve institutional culture.

Her scholarship explores the impacts of racism and bias on health outcomes and professional practice, with publications addressing immigrant adolescent health, implicit bias in healthcare, public health education, and systemic inequities in research funding. Her work has appeared in leading journals such as Health Promotion Practice, Psychiatric Services, and the American Journal of Public Health, and she is a contributing author to the second edition of Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional.

Dr. Merino’s community-based work includes initiatives like Durham’s Back on the Bull COVID-19 campaign, which supported Black- and Latinx-owned businesses during the pandemic. She has served on the boards of Maureen Joy Charter School and El Pueblo, Inc., advancing educational and health equity across North Carolina.

A recipient of the Gillings Teaching Innovation Award and the NIH Merit Award, Dr. Merino is recognized for her creative, equity-centered approach to teaching and mentorship. Her career is driven by a singular mission: to train the next generation of public health leaders to confront systemic inequities with courage, collaboration, and critical insight.

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