Madina Agénor

Madina Agénor is an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in social epidemiology and women's and gender studies. Dr. Agénor's research focuses on the structural and social determinants of health inequities, with particular interests in racism, gender, sexuality, bodily autonomy, health care, and policy. For the past 20 years, she has examined how health care (e.g., access to care, patient-provider communication, health care discrimination) and policy (e.g., health policies, state laws) factors shape sexual and reproductive health inequities among minoritized racialized, sexual orientation, and gendered groups in the U.S. Her most recent research pertains to how discrimination in health care and the law, including racism, sexism, heterosexism, and cisgenderism, shape the health and health care experiences of marginalized groups, including Black and LGBTQ+ people. Her current work pertains to antiblackness, bodily autonomy, illness, and healing among Black communities in North America and the Caribbean in the context of slavery and its afterlife. She holds a Doctor of Science (ScD) in Social and Behavioral Sciences with a concentration in Women, Gender, and Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She completed her undergraduate education at Wellesley College and Brown University, from which she holds a bachelor’s degree (AB) in Community Health and Gender Studies. Dr. Agénor is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University School of Public Health. From Martinique and Haiti, she grew up in Washington, DC.