The Center for Housing and Community Studies of the University of North Carolina Greensboro is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Erica Payton as Faculty Fellow. Dr. Payton, an Associate Professor in UNCG’s Department of Public Health Education, previously held the rotating CHCS faculty fellowship during the calendar year 2020. She returns now as a permanent fellow, to work collaboratively with the CHCS director and staff, leading members of the CHCS team on applied projects, mentoring students, and helping to develop community-based solutions to pressing issues in the areas of housing, health, and community safety.
Dr. Payton will begin her fellowship as co-Principal Investigator on a major project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to study the racially disparate effects on housing conditions of state preemption policies barring proactive local housing code enforcement programs.
Dr. Payton specializes in public health education, with a research agenda focused on health disparities and equity, particularly in the realms of firearm, intimate partner, and community/neighborhood violence. She employs a comprehensive research approach, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods including survey research, semi-structured interviews, content analysis, and focus groups. Her research integrates a social ecological perspective, examining violence prevention across individual, community, societal, and policy levels, and is informed by health equity frameworks. She received policy analysis training as a 2022 RAND Faculty Leaders Fellow in Policy Research and Analysis, incorporating policy strategies into her teaching and research.
We warmly welcome Dr. Payton back to the Center.