Advancing Health Equity

Barrington, who received her master of public health in epidemiology from The University of New Mexico in 2005, is the inaugural director of the Center for Anti-Racism and Community Health at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, Wash. There she studies and develops ways to address the root causes of racial health inequities. 

While she might not have expected this appointment early on in her career, she now knows that the role provides a place for her to further express her lifelong commitment to calling out injustices and demanding change. 

“I have several colleagues – other directors across the nation who are leading these anti-racism centers – and we all have this common love of people,” she said. “That’s why I do the work that I do.”

She is also an associate professor within the UW School of Public Health and School of Nursing. In all her work as an instructor, she said she focuses on promoting health communities and addressing racial disparities in health service delivery and clinical outcomes. 

“We’re taking an explicit anti-racist approach by having the courses grounded in promoting Black health and wellness,” she said.

Barrington’s interest in health care sparked as an undergraduate at Stanford University, where she felt an overwhelming urge to help people.

Initially, Barrington’s undergraduate plan was to enter a pre-medicine program. While she was interested in biology and chemistry, she found herself more interested in big-picture systems thinking – observing events and data, identifying patterns of behavior overtime and discovering driving underlying structures.

“I needed to kind of zoom out,” she said.

A senior-year epidemiology course opened her eyes to the public health field, where she learned she could have a career in providing support and promoting well-being for entire populations. That’s when she pursued her master's at UNM.

“UNM was really a soft landing place for me. It was a very nurturing place for me to explore my interest in public health,” she said. “I realized I could apply population health strategies and help more people, rather than help one person that’s right in front of me in a clinical setting.”