Linda S. Sprague Martinez, Ph.D.

Director, UConn Health Disparities Institute University of Connecticut

  • Farmington CT

Linda Sprague Martinez, Ph.D. has expertise in health equity and the social determinants of health.

Contact

University of Connecticut

View more experts managed by University of Connecticut

Biography

Linda Sprague Martinez, Ph.D. (she, her, hers), is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Connecticut’s School of Medicine, the director of the Health Disparities Institute at UConn Health, and a faculty affiliate at the UConn School of Social Work.

Dr. Sprague Martinez has expertise in health equity and the social determinants of health; community-based participatory research (CBPR) and youth-led participatory action research (YPAR); photovoice; community assessment and mobilization; and qualitative research methods and analyses. Having formerly worked in municipal and state governance, and as an adolescent mental health provider, Dr. Sprague Martinez brings practical expertise in cross sector collaborations and resident engagement.

She was a 2017 Boston Housing Authority, Center for Community Engagement and Civil Rights, Resident Empowerment Coalition, Resident Empowerment Honoree. In 2023, Dr. Sprague Martinez received the NIH HEAL Director’s Award for Community Partnerships, for her work with the HEALing Communities Study. Her research has been funded by NIH, OBSSR and PCORI, as well as by local foundations.

Areas of Expertise

Health Disparities
Health Equity
Community Health
Social Determinants of Health
Photovoice
Community Engagement
Participatory Research

Education

Brandeis University

Ph.D.

Social Policy

Brandeis University

M.A.

Social Policy

Rivier College

M.A.

Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Show All +

Accomplishments

Honorable Mention for the Marie O. Weil Best Article Award, Journal of Community Practice

Association of Community Organizing and Social Action

HEAL Director's Awardee for Community Partnership, Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative

National Institutes of Health

2023 Society for Social Work Research Fellow

Society for Social Work Research

Show All +

Media Appearances

Racism was called a health threat. Then came the DEI backlash.

The Washington Post  print

2024-10-11

“A lot of people are under the assumption that we live in a meritocracy, but what they don’t realize is how life chances are dictated by so many other factors,” said Linda Sprague Martinez, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and director of the Health Disparities Institute at UConn Health, adding that she, too, has had grant-funders recently challenge her use of the word racism in her work. “DEI initiatives don’t even fully level the playing fields. But if we’re not paying attention to the inequities and addressing them, they’re just going to persist.”

View More

The looming public health challenge of long covid

The Washington Post  online

2024-07-25

Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research for the VA St. Louis Health Care System and Jaime Seltzer, scientific director of #MEAction and Stanford University research scientist, discuss the ranging impacts of long covid and how health care institutions can improve in educating the public on the diagnosis. Then, Chimére L. Sweeney, founder and director of The Black Long Covid Experience and Linda Sprague Martinez, director of the Health Disparities Institute at UConn Health discuss the challenges people of color and marginalized communities face in the health care system.

View More

In communities of color, long-covid patients are tired of being sick and neglected

The Washington Post  print

2024-05-28

“People had all these things happening in their body, but they hadn’t heard the term ‘long covid’ from a provider,” said Linda Sprague Martinez, a professor and health equity researcher who has studied the impact of long covid on Black and Latino communities in Massachusetts.

As part of her research, Sprague Martinez’s team conducted 11 focus groups last year: two in English and nine total in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and Cape Verdean Creole. In the focus groups not conducted in English, she said, they found that most people had not heard of long covid before that day. The main culprit, she said: a lack of medical information in languages other than English, and language barriers at health-care facilities and online.

View More

Show All +

Articles

How Is COVID-19 Impacting You? A Community-Based Photovoice Workshop

Am J Public Health

2022

Have you stopped to reflect on how the pandemic has impacted you? In February 2022, staff and peer leaders from 12 demonstration sites funded by the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund and the Health Resources and Services Administration, HIV/AIDS Bureau, Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Part F – Special Projects of National Significance Program critically explored the question “How is COVID-19 impacting you?” as part of an applied photovoice workshop.

View more

“Part of getting to where we are is because we have been open to change” integrating community health workers on care teams at ten Ryan White HIV/AIDS program recipient sites

BMC Public Health

2021

Community Health Workers (CHWs) have long been integrated in the delivery of HIV care in middle- and low-income countries. However, less is known about CHW integration into HIV care teams in the United States (US). To date, US-based CHW integration studies have studies explored integration in the context of primary care and patient-centered medical homes.

View more

Two communities, one highway and the fight for clean air: the role of political history in shaping community engagement and environmental health research translation

BMC Public Health

2020

This paper explores strategies to engage community stakeholders in efforts to address the effects of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP). Communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental threats including emissions generated by major roadways.

View more

Show All +