Laurie T. Martin

Biography

Laurie Martin is a policy researcher at RAND Corporation. Martin has research and program evaluation expertise in the areas of health disparities, health literacy, and mental health. She recently developed a prototype interactive mapping tool that helps stakeholders identify community-level "hot spots" of suboptimal health or health care that may be due to low health literacy so they may target interventions more efficiently and cost-effectively. Martin is also evaluating an intervention to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in hypertension and is examining the individual, combined, and interactive effects of literacy skills on coronary heart disease.

Since joining RAND in 2007, Martin has spent much of her time examining the mental health impact of deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan on soldiers, spouses, and children, as well as the military and civilian support systems to help soldiers and their families address issues related to psychological health, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injury. Martin received her Sc.D. from the Harvard School of Public Health.