Neighborhoods and health: Cordelia Martin-Ikpe’s spatial approach to racial health disparities

For Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Global Public Health Cordelia Martin-Ikpe, health geography is a powerful tool for understanding and addressing health disparities. By examining the connection between neighborhoods and public health, she explores how structural factors shape health outcomes, particularly in marginalized communities.

Health geography is deeply interdisciplinary, Martin-Ikpe explained.

“I focus on neighborhoods because so much of our daily lives are shaped by where we live. By applying spatial perspectives to public health, I investigate how neighborhood environments contribute to health inequities,” she said.

As a health geographer, Martin-Ikpe examines how neighborhood environments shape health outcomes, with a particular focus on racial health disparities in urban, post-industrial cities across the Midwest and mid-Atlantic U.S. She emphasizes the importance of neighborhood context, arguing that understanding the characteristics of a neighborhood provides a fuller picture of the structural factors driving health inequities.

Race, she explains, is a crucial layer of analysis — one that requires looking at the historical forces, policies and social attitudes that have dictated where Black and Indigenous people live and the conditions they experience.

“I’ve always been passionate about social justice, but early in my career, I wasn’t sure how to channel that interest,” Martin-Ikpe said. “When I was introduced to public health, I saw how systemic inequalities create real, measurable disparities. That realization drew me into research that not only examines these injustices but also seeks to address them.”

With a dedication to health equity and spatial justice, Martin-Ikpe’s research methodology is rooted in community engagement, actionable policy insights and interdisciplinary partnerships. She employes spatial methods to examine the relationships between neighborhood environments and public health, with a particular focus on racial health disparities. Her research investigates how racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately exposed to neighborhood conditions of poor quality, with the goal of disentangling the complex links between place and health.

Through this work, she challenges reductive narratives surrounding race and health, shifting the focus toward structural and environmental factors, she said.

A native of Detroit, Martin-Ikpe earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Michigan State University, where she was advised by Professor Joe T. Darden, whose work primarily focused on her hometown. Prior to starting her doctoral program, she had worked in public health for around three years.

She initially came to Binghamton as a a Harpur College Presidential Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow and was appointed as an assistant professor in January 2025.

“This university is a top-ranking research institution,” she said. “I could tell from the start that interdisciplinary research is highly valued here and motivated amongst the academic community. I am interdisciplinary through and through; Binghamton allows me to relish in every passion of mine.”

For Martin-Ikpe, Binghamton University — and particularly the Africana Studies Department — provided an ideal environment to advance her work, especially with the launch of the new Global Public Health Program. With a background in public health, global urban studies, and research experiences in Ghana and South Africa, she saw an opportunity not only to learn from senior scholars but to also contribute to the current evolution of Africana Studies as a dynamic academic discipline.

“I landed in Africana Studies because it is the best place for me,” Martin-Ikpe said. “It has been a supportive and enriching home—one where I can grow, thrive, and feel truly valued.”

And it has already paid dividends. In September 2024, Martin-Ikpe published her first publication in which she was first author publication: a study that explores how neighborhood-level socioeconomic conditions influence disparities in chronic disease prevalence across New York City. With the department’s support, Martin-Ikpe has expanded her research to include a new focus: aging in place in Buffalo, N.Y. Like Detroit, Buffalo is a post-industrial city where disparities persist in opportunity, wealth and health, making it a crucial site for examining the intersection of health, housing and aging.

“Oftentimes, when we talk about health disparities, the conversation centers on racial and ethnic minorities being disproportionately affected by disease. But that framing doesn’t always get to the root of the injustice,” she explained. “My ultimate goal is to ensure that my research translates into public health intervention and policy — fostering awareness of the conditions in which people live, particularly their socioeconomic, psychosocial and built environments, and how these factors shape their health.”