Dr. Caroline R. Efird is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy in the School of Health at Georgetown University. Her research seeks to promote health equity by addressing social and structural drivers of health disparities and inequities. As an interdisciplinary social scientist, she primarily uses mixed-methods to investigate how whiteness influences the health and well-being of racially majoritized and minoritized populations. As someone who grew up in a rural community in the US South, she is also particularly passionate about health equity research that supports rural populations. Dr. Efird has published her scholarship in journals such as the American Journal of Public Health, Social Science & Medicine, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, Pedagogy in Health Promotion, and others.
For the 2025-2026 academic year, Dr. Efird is a Faculty Fellow with the Georgetown-Howard Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice. She is leading an oral history project called "Listening for Health", which aims to promote health equity by capturing the stories of lifetime D.C. residents.
Dr. Efird is a Research Affiliate Member of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Program. She is also a faculty affiliate of the Global Mental Health and Well-Being Initiative and the Medical Humanities Initiative at Georgetown University. She holds a Ph.D. and MPH in Health Behavior from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research from the UNC-Chapel Hill Program on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health Outcomes. Additionally, she completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with the Georgetown University Racial Justice Institute. Prior to her career in health equity research, Dr. Efird earned a B.S. (with highest honors) in Elementary Education from Appalachian State University and she worked with children and families in public schools and non-profit settings for over 9 years.