Mercedes Bravo
Associate Director for Community, Duke Global Health Institute
Assistant Research Professor of Global Health
Assistant Research Professor in Population Health Sciences
Assistant Research Professor in the Division of Environmental Science and Policy
Appointment:
Mercedes Bravo
Associate Director for Community, Duke Global Health Institute
Assistant Research Professor of Global Health
Assistant Research Professor in Population Health Sciences
Assistant Research Professor in the Division of Environmental Science and Policy
Dr. Mercedes Bravo received her PhD from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Bravo’s research focuses on identifying and characterizing relationships between social and environmental exposures and disparities in health and developmental outcomes. She is particularly interested in promoting health equity through better characterization of disparities in exposures and disparities in health outcomes, especially for underserved, underrepresented, and potentially vulnerable populations. Prior to joining DGHI, Dr. Bravo worked at RTI International and the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) and Statistics Department at Rice University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Publications
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Heo S, Byun G, Choi Y, Song Y, Bravo M, Ma T, et al. A scoping review on the impact of ambient temperature on human infertility. Environmental research. 2025 Dec;292:123641.Ward-Caviness CK, Platt A, Fisher E, Weaver AM, Bell ML, Bravo MA. A case-crossover analysis of short-term PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure and COVID19-related hospitalizations in the National Clinical Cohort Collaborative. Communications medicine. 2025 Nov;5(1):459.Gunasekara TDKSC, De Silva PMCS, Wijesundara WMPA, Chaminda GGT, Herath C, Siribaddana S, et al. Is Fluoride the Culprit? Revisiting Evidence on Environmental Origins of Chronic Kidney Disease of Uncertain Etiology (CKDu): A Narrative Review. Toxics. 2025 Nov;13(11):966.Bhavsar NA, Jowers K, Yang LZ, Guha S, Lin X, Peskoe S, et al. The association between long-term PM2.5 exposure and risk for pancreatic cancer: an application of social informatics. Am J Epidemiol. 2025 Mar 4;194(3):730–7.
See more publications at Scholars@Duke

