Marino A. Bruce is director of UH Population Health Collaboratories, where he leads the Faith, Justice and Health Collaboratory and co-leads the Men’s Health Collaboratory. He is also associate dean for Research and professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine.

Bruce is a sociologist who examines the full range of factors as they relate to the onset and progression of chronic diseases among African American males over the life course and across generations. The National Institutes of Health has supported his work for nearly two decades, including a National Heart Lung and Blood Institute career development award examining socioeconomic distress and chronic kidney disease in the Jackson Heart Study, and two recent grants examining social stressors, faith-oriented factors and their influence on physical and cognitive functioning of African American men during middle and late life.

Bruce is a former editor of Research on Race and Ethnic Relations, current associate editor of Ethnicity and Disease and co-editor of two recent books, Men’s Health Equity and Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional. Bruce is also an ordained Baptist minister and his current work leveraging professional, educational and clerical experiences has been featured in numerous global media outlets including USA Today, The Today Show and Time Magazine.

Bruce earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Davidson College and master’s degrees in rural sociology, divinity, and rehabilitation counseling from North Carolina State University, Piedmont Theological Seminary, and Winston Salem State University, respectively. He earned a doctorate in sociology from North Carolina State University and received postdoctoral training in Family Medicine from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in biobehavioral health from Duke University.