Jaimie C. Hunter, PhD, MPH

Dr. Jaimie Hunter is a University of North Carolina Tar Heel with expertise in Health Behavior (MPH, PhD). She has nearly 20 years’ experience in public health scholarship, research, and practice, most of which focused on health equity. She has authored or co-authored 24 scholarly products, including peer-reviewed journal articles and abstracts, book chapters, and policy briefs.

A research methodologist by training, Dr. Hunter is especially interested in mental illness as a risk factor for deleterious physical health outcomes and the mitigation of this risk by psychosocial resilience factors. Her dissertation research demonstrated the persistence of a robust, direct, positive relationship between depressive symptoms and type 2 diabetes across context, timing, and measurement methodology. She found limited evidence that tangible social support can be protective against depression among individuals with type 2 diabetes.

While Dr. Hunter’s doctoral training focused on quantitative methodology, she also developed expertise in qualitative methods and mixed methods research. She has developed, implemented, and evaluated lay health advisor programs; partnered with African American and Latino churches and other community organizations to conduct health promotion projects; led and evaluated health-related multimedia campaigns in diverse communities; conducted community workshops on topics critical to vulnerable communities; managed a small clinical trial to reduce hypertension in African Americans; and designed and led a photovoice project that provided a forum for African American community members to tell their stories of living with chronic disease.

In her personal time, Dr. Hunter enjoys music, writes novels, and hangs out with her golden retriever., Gracie.