Sherman A James, Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Sociology; Community and Family Medicine; African and African American Studies, Faculty Affiliate Duke Population Research Institute  

Office Location: 213 Sanford Building
Office Phone: (919) 613-7338
Duke Box: 90245
Email Address: sjames@duke.edu
Note: On leave, fall 2012

Areas of Expertise

  • Health Policy
    • Access to health care
    • Health Disparities
  • Social Policy, Race/Ethnicity

Education:
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, 1973
A.B., Talladega College, Talladega, AL, 1964

Research Categories: Social Determinants of US Racial, Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in Health Status and Health Care; Poverty and Global Health Disparities

Current projects: Life course Socioeconomic Position and the Health of African Americans: The Pitt County Study (PI), Reducing diabetes-related health disparities in African Americans (PI), The Southern Center on Environmentally-Driven Disparities in Birth Outcomes (Co-Director), The Health Legacy of Desegregation on Black/White Health Disparities in the South (PI)

Research Description: Research: Social determinants of U.S.racial, ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities; community-based and public policy interventions to reduce health disparities

Office Hours:
10am-12noon, Mondays

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Abdelrahim S, James SA, Yamout R, Baker, W. "Discrimination and Psychological Distress: Does Whiteness Matter for Arab Americans?." Social Science & Medicine 75 (Fall, 2012): 2116-2123.
  2. Orr ST, Orr CA, James SA, Blazer DG. "Life Satisfaction and Preterm Birth among Urban, Black Women: Findings from the Baltimore Preterm Birth Study." Annals of Epidemiology 22 (Fall, 2012): 759-763.
  3. Sims M, Diez-Roux A, Dudley A, Gebreab S, Wyatt SB, Bruce M, James SA et al. "Perceived Discrimination and Hypertension among African Americans in the Jackson Heart Study." American Journal of Public Health 102 (Spring, 2012): S258-S265.
  4. Anthopolos R, James SA, Gelfand AE, Miranda ML. "A Spatial Measure of Neighborhood Level Racial Isolation Applied to Low Birthweight, Preterm Birth, and Birthweight in North Carolina." Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology 2.4 (December, 2011): 235-246.
  5. James SA, VanHoewyk J., Belli RF, Strogatz DS, Williams DR. "Life-course Socioeconomic Position and Risk for Hypertension in African American Men: The Pitt County Study." American Journal of Public Health 96.5 (May, 2006): 812-817.
  6. Stanton MV, Jonassaint CR, Williams RB, James SA. "Socioeconomic Status Moderates the Association between John Henryism and NEO-PI-R Personality Domains." Psychosomatic Medicine 72 (Spring, 2010): 141-147.

Curriculum Vitae

Bio/Profile
Sherman A. James is the Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University. He is also holds professorships at Duke in Sociology, Community and Family Medicine, and African and African American Studies. Prior to joining the Duke faculty, he taught in the epidemiology departments at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1973-89) and at the University of Michigan (1989-03). At Michigan, he was the John P. Kirscht Collegiate Professor of Public Health, the Founding Director of the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health (CRECH), Chair of the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, and a Senior Research Scientist in the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research.

James' research focuses on the social determinants of racial and ethnic health inequalities and community-based and public policy interventions designed to minimize, and ultimately eliminate, these inequalities.

James was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2000. In 2001, he received the Abraham Lilienfeld Award from the Epidemiology section of the American Public Health Association for career excellence in the teaching of epidemiology. He is a fellow of the American Epidemiological Society, the American College of Epidemiology, the American Heart Association, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. In 2007-08, he served as president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER). In 2008, he was awarded a Health Policy Investigator Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A social epidemiologist, James received his PhD (Psychology) from Washington University in St. Louis (1973). In 2008, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Washington University.

Sherman A James