J'Mag Karbeah

Health Services Research & Policy PhD Candidate

University of Minnesota School of Public Health

Area of Emphasis: Sociology of Health and Illness

Advisor: Rachel Hardeman PhD, MPH

Affiliations: Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity; Minnesota Population Center

Research Interests: Health disparities, structural racism, adolescent health, reproductive justice, birth outcomes, policing

Bio: I am a PhD candidate and pre-doctoral Population Health Sciences trainee expected to finish my degree is July 2022. My current research research integrates my HSR and demography training to analyze the impact of structural racism on maternal and child health inequities. My scholarship has done this by:(1) examining alternative perinatal care models to address inequities in access and quality that Black birthing people face and (2) acknowledging and challenging how anti-Black racism is perpetuated through public health and medical institutions. My

dissertation work examines police contact as a form of structural racism impacting adolescent health outcomes.

Selected Publications

  • Alang, S., Hardeman, R., Karbeah, J., Akosinou, O., McGuire, C., Abdi, H., McAlpine,D.,(2021)..White Supremacy and the Core Functions of Public Health. American Journal of Public Health


  • Hardeman, R., Karbeah,J. (2020) Examining racism in health services research: A disciplinary self-critique. Health Services Research, 55 (S2), 777-780.


  • Hardeman, R. R., Karbeah, J., Almanza, J., & Kozhimannil, K. B. (2020). Roots Community Birth Center: A culturally-centered care model for improving value and equity in childbirth. In Healthcare (Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 100367). Elsevier.


  • Hardeman, R., Karbeah, J., Kozhimannil, K. (2020) Applying a critical race lens to relationship-centered care in pregnancy and childbirth: An antidote to structural racism. Birth, 47(1), 3-7.


  • Karbeah J, Hardeman R, Almanza J, Kozhimannil K. 2019.Identifying the Key Elements of Racially Concordant Care in a Free-standing Birth Center. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health.

  • Hardeman, R., Murphy K.,, Karbeah J., Kozhimannil KB.2018. “Naming Institutionalized Racism in the Public Health Literature: A Systematic Literature Review.” Public Health Reports:0033354918760574.

Email: karbe001@umn.edu