About Dr. Mary Mbaba
Applied social science for complex public health challenges.
Dr. Mary Mbaba is an applied social psychologist and public health researcher who studies how people, communities, and systems shape health.
Her work focuses on behavioral health, implementation science, and developing research-informed approaches that can work in real-world settings.
She brings together community perspectives and rigorous research to help organizations understand complex problems and identify practical paths forward.
How We Work
Start With the Question
We begin by understanding the problem, the context, and what the organization needs to learn.
Center Community Knowledge
Research is stronger when the people closest to an issue have a meaningful role in shaping it.
Connect Evidence to Practice
We look beyond findings to understand what it takes to put evidence into practice.
Build for Real-World Use
Research should produce insight that organizations can use to make decisions, improve programs, and pursue new opportunities.
Meet Dr. Mary Mbaba
Founder & Principal Researcher
Mary Mbaba, PhD, MPH
Dr. Mary Mbaba is an applied social psychologist, public health researcher, and Penn State postdoctoral fellow in the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center. Her work focuses on behavioral health, substance use prevention, community-based research, and implementation science.
Dr. Mbaba received her doctorate in Applied Social Psychology from George Washington University in 2024, where she trained in understanding how biases, stereotypes, attitudes, discrimination, social norms, and other social cognitions shape health-related behavior. With more than a decade of mixed-methods research experience, her work has spanned mental health, substance use, criminal justice involvement, sexual health, HIV prevention, and health behavior.
Her approach is informed by intersectionality and attention to the social and cultural contexts in which health behaviors occur. She considers how identities, social conditions, and lived experiences interact to shape health, access to care, and engagement with interventions. This perspective is central to her work with communities and to the development of culturally responsive research and behavioral health approaches.
Her research experience includes clinical trials, qualitative and quantitative research, and community-engaged approaches. Early in her research career, she worked on a clinical randomized controlled trial examining buprenorphine treatment among people with opioid use disorder involved in the criminal justice system. She has also used community-based participatory research to examine HIV prevention and mental health among Black men.
Her doctoral research examined how racial identity and perceptions of target-image similarity shape Black women's willingness to practice yoga. She holds an MPH from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, where she studied behavioral science and health education and earned a certificate in Socio-Contextual Determinants of Health. Her master's thesis examined social and behavioral predictors of jail suicides.
Dr. Mbaba is also an educator and mentor. She teaches Research Methods in Psychology at the University of Maryland Global Campus and has taught medical students about social determinants of health through Howard University Hospital. Her background in yoga and contemplative practices, including 200-hour yoga teacher training, has informed her research interest in culturally responsive and mind-body approaches to behavioral health.
Her creative practice is another part of her interdisciplinary perspective. She has created, directed, and produced clinical continuing education content for healthcare professionals focused on the health of Black gay, bisexual, and same-gender-loving men. She is also a recording artist, photographer, and cultural documentarian.
Across her work, Dr. Mbaba brings behavioral science, public health, community knowledge, and creative approaches together to understand complex health challenges and develop research that can be used in practice.
Current Research
Varela Grant — Contemplative Dialogues Project
Honored to be a recipient of the 2025 Francisco J. Varela Research Grant for Contemplative Dialogues: A Photovoice Exploration of Mental Health through Yoga, Mindfulness, Identity, and Belonging Among Black Emerging Adults. This research centers Black emerging adults (ages 18–30) and explores how culturally adapted yoga and mindfulness practices support mental wellbeing, racial identity formation, and community connection. Using Photovoice (a creative method where participants share photos and personal stories), this project amplifies participants’ voices while deepening understanding of how contemplative practices influence daily life. Findings will help inform future mental health programs, policy, and culturally relevant wellness approaches that meet the needs of diverse communities.
Funder
Mind & Life Institute
Year
2025-2027