Marybec Griffin, PhD, MPH, MA (she/her/hers)
Biography
Marybec Griffin, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.A., is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health.
Prior to joining Rutgers University, she worked at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the areas of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) policy and program design as well as helping to evaluate the quality of sexual health services and contraceptive coverage. Her doctoral research focused on the healthcare access for young adult gay men and was funded by a grant from the New York State Department of Health.
Dr. Griffin received her doctoral degree in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences from New York University, where she studied under the mentorship of Perry N. Halkitis. In addition, she is a trained doula and a certified sexologist. Her research focuses on healthcare access among LGBTQ+ young adults, sexual health education, the impact of media (music and film) on identity and behavior, and menstrual health. She is the co-creator of Dr. Period Hackers, a menstrual health research and education collective.
Research Interests
Dr. Griffin has an interdisciplinary program of research that broadly focuses on socio-cultural and political aspects that affect the decision to access healthcare. Her doctoral research was funded by a grant from the New York State Department of Health. This research used a mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) design; she interviewed 40 young adult gay men (YAGM) between September - October 2015 and surveyed 800 YAGM between November 2015 - June 2016 to investigate trends related to healthcare access. This study conceptualizes healthcare access from the perspective of engagement with the healthcare system, access to care, and satisfaction with services.
These issues are considered through the lens of both syndemics theory and the Andersen Model of Healthcare Access to understand the bio-psycho-social perspective of the individual within the context of society. This research indicates that YAGM separate sexual healthcare from primary care due to myriad factors including: prior experiences of discrimination in a healthcare setting and media conditioning on the prioritization of sexual health services in the aftermath of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. YAGM’s primary healthcare access lags behind their access to sexual health services due to entrenched provider homophobia, experiences of discrimination in healthcare settings, and the perception of sexual healthcare as the paramount concern during the developmental period of young adulthood.