Corbie-Smith didn't realise that she wanted to become a physician as a child, but volunteered at her local hospital as a teenager. Her mother was a nurse. She eventually studied biology and genetics at Cornell University and graduated in 1986. During her senior year of college she decided that she wanted to pursue a medical career, but had not taken her Medical College Admission Test s, and wanted to earn money. She spent a year working for the BrooklynBoard of Education and in a genetics lab. She moved to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for a Doctor of Medicine, which she completed in 1991. When she was in a third year of medical school, Corbie-smith recognised the importance of the doctor–patient relationship. Albert Einstein College of Medicine is in The Bronx, and Corbie-Smith recognised there how social factors impact people's physical and mental health. She was a medical resident at the Yale University School of Medicine. Corbie-Smith was inspired by a lecture from Nicole Lurie to research health disparities. After the lecture she started to become more aware of health disparities in her own medical practise, and noticed that black patients did not receive the same diagnoses or treatment as their white counterparts who presented with the same symptoms. In 1998 she joined Emory University for a master's in clinical research, and held a clinical ethics fellowship at the Center for Ethics in Public Policy and Professions.
Research and career
In 2000 Corbie-Smith joined the UNC School of Medicine. When she arrived in North Carolina, she realised that there were significant disparities in healthcare provision for people in rural areas from ethnic minority communities. Corbie-Smith directs Project GRACE, a large-scale initiative to stop the spread of HIV which involves members of the Nash and Edgecombe County communities. She has studied why people from ethnic minorities may not engage with medical trials and the ethical obligations associated with recruiting underserved populations. Corbie-Smith has identified that racism and medical mistrust cause delays in African-American men accessing preventative screening. She has shown that women with low levels of social support have a 20% greater risk of dying prematurely of cardiovascular disease than women with established networks to social support. Corbie-Smith is part of the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute, where she leads Community Academic Resources for Engaged Scholarship Services. CARES partners healthcare providers with community members in North Carolina in an effort to identify solutions to local health challenges.
