Martha Bruce, PhD, MPH

Martha Bruce is a professor of psychiatry and of community and family medicine at The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. As an implementation scientist, she integrates clinical, sociological, and public health perspectives in the development of clinically relevant interventions designed to reach as many individuals in need as possible. In developing interventions targeting depression in frail older adults, she has worked in partnership with community providers (e.g., primary care, home healthcare, aging services) to enhance sustainability and scalability. The overarching goal of this research is reducing their risk of depression, suicidality, and disability, increasing ability to live independently, and improving access to quality mental health care. Bruce’s career has also focused on mentoring graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career investigators. She has been principal investigator of two NIH-funded R25 grants that support national mentoring networks for early and mid-career researchers, co-director of three NIH postdoctoral training programs, and member of the national advisory committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health and Society Scholars Program. In addition to her role as director of faculty mentoring at The Dartmouth Institute, Bruce co-leads Dartmouth SYNERGY’s Program for Education, Training, and Career Development. Prior to joining the faculty at Dartmouth, Bruce was a professor of sociology in psychiatry at a Weill Cornell Medical College. There, she served as psychiatry’s associate vice chair for research, and as co-director of Cornell’s NIH-funded Advanced Research Center for Geriatric Mood Disorders. Bruce received her PhD in sociology, MPH in health services, and completed postdoctoral training in psychiatric epidemiology at Yale University.