MyDzung T. Chu, PhD, MSPH, is the Faculty Investigator at the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine in the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies and the Director of the ADAPT (Addressing Disparities in Asian Populations through Translational Research) Coalition at Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Trained as an environmental and occupational epidemiologist, her work is grounded in environmental justice principles and in the centering of populations and communities most impacted. Broadly, she is interested in community-engaged research on social-contextual and environmental determinants of health for Asian and immigrant populations, particularly in the built environment (e.g., home, workplace, neighborhood). She is currently collaborating with community partners to investigate the influence of acculturation and environmental risk factors on the gut microbiome for Asian immigrants during pregnancy, and to evaluate cultural responsiveness of existing mental health resources for Asian populations in Greater Boston. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the George Washington University where she examined the impact of federal housing assistance on residential environmental exposures using novel national data linkages and developed a national multidimensional Housing and Environmental Quality Index. Her dissertation research looked at socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and nativity-related disparities in indoor and ambient air pollution exposures.
Dr. Chu currently serves on the board of the Healthy Building Network and advocates for affordable housing and anti-displacement policies in Greater Boston, MA. She previously held positions at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. She received her PhD in Population Health Sciences from Harvard University, a MSPH in Environmental Health and Epidemiology from Emory University, and a BA in Neuroscience from Smith College.
