Naa Oyo A. Kwate, Ph.D.

Naa Oyo A. Kwate, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Human Ecology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A psychologist by training, she has wide ranging interests in racial inequality and African American health. Her research (rna-lab.com) has centered primarily on the ways in which urban built environments reflect racial inequalities in the United States, and how racism directly and indirectly affects African American health. Much of her work has been in New York City, where she has studied topics including the disproportionate density of fast food in Black neighborhoods, and the effects of outdoor alcohol advertising on Black women's alcohol consumption. Recent work includes "Racism Still Exists (RISE)", a public health intervention that comprised an ad campaign about the persistence of racism in the U.S., and an analysis of how NYPD officers perceive Black women's body size in Stop and Frisk and encounters.