Devin Banks
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
- Phone: 314-362-6565
- Email: banks.devin@nospam.wustl.edu
Additional Titles & Roles
- Assistant Professor of Public Health
Education & Training
- Ph.D.: Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, 2020
- M.S.: Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, 2016
- B.A.: University of California Berkeley, 2011
Major Awards
- Scholar, Faculty Diversity Scholars Program, Washington University School of Medicine, 2024
- Scholar, Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences KL2 Career Development Award, 2021
- Scholar, NIDA R25 HIV/AIDS, Substance Abuse, and Trauma Training Program, 2020
Research Interests
My research aims to advance behavioral health equity across the lifespan through culturally responsive approaches to research, prevention, and intervention, with a specific focus on disparities impacting Black Americans. To this end, my work has illuminated racial and cultural determinants of health at multiple levels, investigating how factors ranging from environmental neighborhood disadvantage to psychosocial stigma contribute to substance use and mental health disparities. As a community-engaged researcher, my work is often conducted in partnership with traditionally marginalized populations, including communities of color, people who use drugs, unhoused individuals, and adolescents. I am interested in integrating community engagement principles with data science, digital technology, geospatial information systems, and systems science to ensure behavioral health interventions work for our most vulnerable communities.
Areas of Expertise: social and structural determinants of mental health; substance use development and prevention; community-based research and intervention; racial and socioeconomic disparities.
Recent Publications
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Understanding Risk and Resilience: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Substance Use among Racial and Ethnically Diverse Adolescents
Mayorga, N. A., Banks, D. & Zhen-Duan, J., Dec 2026, In: Current Addiction Reports. 13, 1, 58.
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Toward an actionable model to investigate and mitigate racialized substance use stigma facing Black people who use drugs
Banks, D. E., Sep 2026, In: International Journal of Drug Policy. 155, 105383.
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Designing a Culturally Adapted Perioperative Mental Health Intervention for Older Black Male Surgical Patients: A Community-Based Participatory Study
Mehta, D., Holzer, K. J., Banks, D. E., Lenze, E. J. & Abraham, J., Mar 2026, In: American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 34, 3, p. 323-336 14 p.
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“Another one bite the dust—It happens so much in Black neighborhoods”: Structural barriers and grassroots resources among Black men who use drugs facing fentanyl-era overdose and treatment disparities
Banks, D. E., Campbell, K. D., Paschke, M. E., Ghonasgi, R., Coffey, B., Jones, J., Blanchard, B., Carpenter, R. W., Bradshaw, D. & Winograd, R. P., Feb 2026, In: Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment. 181, 209846.
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Developing a Culturally Grounded Social-Ecological Model of Cannabis Norms and Use Among Black Adolescents: A Qualitative Study
Brown, K. L., Campbell, K. D., Winograd, R. P. & Banks, D. E., 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: Contemporary Drug Problems.