Rate My Professor Mindy Ma

Mindy Ma, Ph.D., serves as Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and Associate Dean at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Psychology. She received her B.S. with honors in Psychology from Brown University in 1993, an M.S. in Clinical Health Psychology in 1997, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Health Psychology in 1999 from the University of Miami, both APA-accredited programs. Ma completed her APA-accredited clinical internship at the Honolulu VA Medical and Regional Office Center in 1999 and a postdoctoral fellowship in Family Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 2000. Her career trajectory includes serving as Assistant Professor and Director of the Community Health Program at Jackson State University from 2001 to 2007. Since joining Nova Southeastern University in 2007, she progressed from Assistant Professor and Psychology Coordinator (2007–2011) to Associate Professor and Psychology Coordinator (2011–2016), and has held her current positions as Professor and Associate Dean since 2016.

Ma’s research centers on cardiovascular behavioral medicine and HIV prevention, with a focus on minority health, health risk behaviors, stress, and coping. Her primary objective is to enhance health outcomes for underrepresented minority populations through primary prevention strategies and the promotion of human virtues to foster wellness. Notable publications include Kibler et al. (2023), “Pilot findings indicate a cognitive behavioral healthy lifestyle intervention for PTSD improves sleep and physical activity,” published in Brain Sciences; Ma et al. (2023), “Racial concordance on healthcare use within Hispanic population subgroups,” in Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities; Adriano et al. (2021), “The relationship between racial/ethnic concordance and hypertension control,” in The Permanente Journal; Kibler and Ma (2021), “Towards a better understanding of PTSD/hypertension associations: Examining sociodemographic aspects,” in Hearts; Ma et al. (2017), “Cultural assets and substance use among Hispanic adolescents,” in Health Education & Behavior; and Ma et al. (2013), “Gratitude is associated with greater levels of protective factors and lower levels of risks in African American adolescents,” in Journal of Adolescence. Her scholarship also addresses PTSD severity and cardiovascular risks, cultural influences on HIV testing in Latino youth, racial/ethnic differences in cardiovascular knowledge, and predictors of HIV vaccine trial participation among African Americans.