Fellows

Karen D. Lincoln, PhD

Active | Inducted in 2026

Bio

Dr. Karen D. Lincoln is a professor of environmental and occupational health and director of the Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research in the Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine. She is a social worker and sociologist with expertise in social determinants of health disparities. Her research, writing, and advocacy are rooted in the Black American experience and across the fields of social work, sociology, and gerontology. The primary objective of her research agenda is to improve health and well-being outcomes for Black Americans, older adults, and minoritized persons by investigating the psychosocial, behavioral, and biological mechanisms that link social determinants to health and well-being.

Dr. Lincoln is the founder and director of Advocates for African American Elders, an outreach, engagement, and health education program that serves “seasoned citizens” and their families throughout Southern California. Dr. Lincoln has published extensively in the areas of social stress, aging, and health disparities, and is an active public scholar and aging advocate, with op-eds in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets focused on long-term care, policies to support low-income older adults, and political and social determinants of health disparities.

Dr. Lincoln is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, a Hartford Faculty Scholar, an Encore Public Voices Fellow, and a Next Avenue Influencer in Aging. Dr. Lincoln was ranked third among the most influential African American social work scholars in the United States and was named among the Top 2% of Scientists Worldwide by Elsevier and Stanford University in 2022.

Research Interests

Dr. Lincoln is a social worker with a joint degree in social work and sociology. Reflecting her interdisciplinary training, her scholarship is grounded in theories and methods developed in the fields of social work, sociology, and psychology. She has applied these principles to identify factors that both harm and promote mental health and well-being among Black Americans.

Dr. Lincoln is the only scholar nationally who has systematically contributed to the literature on the impact of negative interaction (e.g., conflict, excessive demands, manipulation) on mental health among African American and Caribbean Black adults. Her efforts have 1) advanced our understanding of the impact and modeling of social support and negative interaction on mental health among diverse populations, 2) identified negative interaction as a particularly important risk factor for mental health among vulnerable populations, and 3) documented within-and between-group differences with respect to risk and protective factors associated with a variety of mental health outcomes among diverse populations.

 

Dr. Lincoln is an honors graduate from UC Berkeley, where she received a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in African American studies and a graduate from the University of Michigan where she earned a MSW, a M.A. in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Social Work and Sociology.

Education

PhD, 2002, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor