Dr. Marinelle Payton is the Chair and Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Principal Investigator and Director of the Jackson Heart Study Graduate Training and Education Center and the Center of Excellence in Minority Health, and Health Disparities/Institute of Epidemiology and Health Services Research (funded by the National Institutes of Health) at Jackson State University (JSU) School of Public Health. She is a physician with specialty training in Neurological Sciences, Surgery, Radiology, Epidemiology, Public Health, and Environmental and Occupational Medicine. She received the combined M.D.-Ph.D. degrees and the M.P.H. and M.S. degrees from Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health. Following clinical training at Yale University and Boston University hospitals, she held hospital and joint academic appointments at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA.