Akilah Dulin Keita (PhD 2007) is an Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the Brown University School of Public Health.
Dr. Dulin Keita obtained a PhD in Medical Sociology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2007 and joined Brown University in 2012. In 2016 she was named the Manning Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences. Dr. Dulin Keita's work focuses on identifying neighborhood contexts of diet, physical activity and obesity-related comorbidities. She has particular interests in processes of neighborhood dynamics resulting from urban revitalization policies and public health interventions and the potential effects on the aforementioned behavioral and health outcomes. Dr. Dulin Keita is also interested in using mixed methods approaches to identify culturally appropriate childhood obesity interventions for under-served Asian populations, and examining the roles of psychosocial stressors on health behaviors and cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Dr. Keita is a co-author of "The influence of HOPE VI neighborhood revitalization on neighborhood-based physical activity: A mixed-methods approach opens a new website" published in Social Science in Medicine. The study uses a mixed methods approach to:
- identify surrounding residents' perceived expectations for Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) policy on physical activity outcomes, and
- quantitatively examine the odds of neighborhood-based physical activity pre-/post-HOPE VI in a low socioeconomic status, predominantly African American community in Birmingham, Alabama.
Faculty Profile opens a new website
Watch a short video about the HOPE VI study.