Nicole Summers-Gabr

Senior Researcher

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Nicole Summers-Gabr is a senior researcher for the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. She works to advance community-based participatory approaches and conducts both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Her primary research interests include:

• The relationship between health care and workforce participation
• Ways to shape rural prosperity
• Youth voice in understanding how to address economic disparities

Summers-Gabr received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology with concentrations in developmental psychology and quantitative methods in behavioral sciences from Saint Louis University. She also earned a master’s degree in experimental psychology. She holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology, with a minor in applied statistics, and German from Grand Valley State University.

Prior to joining the St. Louis Fed in 2023, Summers-Gabr was an assistant professor and director of social innovation in the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine’s population science and policy department. During this time, she helped form community coalitions and evaluated programming in central and southern Illinois to support adolescent mental health. She also facilitated partnerships between schools, rural hospitals and public health departments to address resource shortages and improve health equity. She began her career as a data analyst for Pennsylvania State University’s Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center.

Summers-Gabr has presented research in 12 states and four countries outside of the U.S. She has also been featured in Psychology Today and on Rural Health Leadership Radio and Iowa Public Radio.

Featured Publications

• One Decade Later: The Generalizability, Diversity, and Inclusion of Community Health Needs Assessments
  with Jessica Cantrall, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, Vol. 29, No. 1, January/February 2023
• The Power of Policy: Business Closures in Rural Communities
  with Erin Ham, The Community Psychologist, Vol. 56, No. 3, Summer 2023
• Discriminatory Experiences among Black Youth: How Encounters and Expectations Explain Emotional Well-Being
  with Mikiko Sato, Sarah M. Chilenski, Francisco Villarruel, Paula Smith, Charles Henderson, Jeremiah Newell, Hilder Wilson and Astrid Craig, Prevention Science, June 17, 2023
• Rural-Urban Mental Health Disparities in the United States during COVID-19
  Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, June 1, 2020
• The Promise of Precision Population Health: Reducing Health Disparities through a Community Partnership Framework
  with Anda K. Kuo, Sameer Vohra, Robert S. Kahn and Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Advances in Pediatrics, Vol. 66, August 2019