Dr. Sprague Martinez Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure
See also: Dr. Salas-Wright Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure
Linda Sprague Martinez, Ph.D. has many titles: researcher, educator, community practitioner, youth worker, mentor, mom and PTO volunteer. Now, after extensive internal and external reviews, she adds tenured professor to the list. Dr. Sprague Martinez’s promotion to associate professor with tenure was effective May 13, 2019.
A member of Boston University’s School of Social Work Macro Practice department, Dr. Sprague Martinez leads courses on community planning and health equity, as well as organizational analysis and intervention.
Her focus on community engagement has led to partnerships and collaborations with groups across the region including the Boston Housing Authority, the Center for Community Health Education Research and Service, Inc., and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
Based on her community engagement expertise, she was recently invited to join Boston Medical Center’s (BMC) work with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Initiative, a bold, trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid crisis. BMC was awarded $89 million in funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the NIH, to lead the HEALing Communities Study (HCS) study with the goal of reducing opioid deaths by 40% in some of the most heavily impacted Massachusetts communities.
Since earning her Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University, Dr. Sprague Martinez has been awarded over $3 million in research funding as principal investigator for community-based participatory research and youth-led action projects focused on health equity and social determinants of health. She also serves on multiple research teams as a community engagement expert, social scientist and qualitative methodologist.
Her research is funded by a diverse collection of organizations ranging from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the Offices of Social Science and Behavioral Research to the Boston Foundation. Her findings have been published in numerous scholarly journals including American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Community Practice, Oncologist, and Social Work.