Dr. Chuka Emezue is an Assistant Professor and the John L. and Helen Kellogg Endowed Faculty Scholar in the Women, Children, and Family Nursing Department at RUSH University College of Nursing.
His research integrates digital health, biopsychosocial, and community-engaged approaches to address youth and family violence, mental health challenges, and early substance use. He primarily focuses on justice-involved, Black, and Latinx/Hispanic boys and young men who use and survive violence. Over the past five years, Dr. Emezue has developed two culturally grounded, technology-enabled interventions. BrotherlyACT is a mobile and web-based platform designed for young Black males, combining life skills coaching, pre-crisis mental health support, safety planning, and an AI-supported chatbot. FatherlyACT is a trauma-informed father–child dyadic program delivered in-person and online to strengthen healthy father–child relationships and reduce the impact of intimate partner and domestic violence on mothers and children.
His recent work increasingly bridges internal biology and external stress environments, examining how chronic adversity is biologically embedded and shapes the microbiota–gut–brain axis and stress-response systems, as well as how these physiological changes interact with structural stressors such as racism, food insecurity, community violence, and poverty.
His research has been funded by the NIH (NIH/NCATS ITM Pilot Award, NIMHD C3EN), the Cohn Family Foundation, the Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation, the Joyce Chapman Community Grant, and internal Rush mechanisms. Since 2021, he has published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles and three book chapters, delivered over 100 scholarly presentations, and contributed to national conversations through op-eds and media features in the Chicago Tribune, Ms. Magazine, NPR, and other outlets. He is also a former Contributor-in-Residence with the Synapsis Medical Humanities Journal.
Dr. Emezue founded the Technology and Adolescent Mental Health Internship (TAMI) Program, now in its third year. The program builds youth capacity in research and community-based inquiry, training more than 75 high school students from eight schools in community-engaged research and digital mental health. This innovative model has led to youth co-authored, peer-reviewed publications and represents a rare example of authentic youth-engaged scholarship.
He holds a PhD in Nursing Science, an MPH, and an MPA from the University of Missouri–Columbia, and a BSc in Biochemistry from Niger Delta University, Nigeria. He is a 2023 Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project, an RBIHE Health Equity Scholar, and a Cohn Fellow.
NIH Commons: CHUKANE
Scopus ID: 57211685977
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9805-4151