Structural inequity is recognized as a fundamental cause of unjust disparities in health and disease, yet neither the specific mechanisms through which inequitable social conditions impact on health, nor best practices for intervention, are fully understood. The Identity Vitality-Pathology (IVP) model is an innovative, comprehensive framework that draws from a wide range of disciplines to fill in conceptual gaps in the known pathways from structural to health inequity. This talk will describe the theory and empirical evidence for the IVP model’s three primary objectives: 1) to introduce the concept of identity vitality-pathology, a spectrum of health-determining identity characteristics that spans from health-promoting (vitality) to health-damaging (pathology); 2) to outline a biologically-plausible role for identity as a moderator of the variable effects of structural inequity on health across social groups, and 3) to propose identity-based positive psychological characteristics as an underexplored source of resilience that must necessarily be leveraged in order to effectively engage in the long work of deconstructing the inequitable social systems at the root of health inequity. The talk concludes with discussion of the IVP framework as a bridge between positive psychology and epidemiology necessary for identifying novel sustainable, ethical, and effective interventions on health disparities.