UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Magazine - 60th Anniversary Issue

6 0T H A N N I V E R S A RY I S S U E

BUILDING A HEALTHIER FUTURE TOGETHER

Celebrating six decades of impact, and sowing the seeds for a more equitable tomorrow.

DEAN’S MESSAGE

IN PUBLIC HEALTH WE FOCUS ON PROTECTING AND PROMOTING THE health and well-being of communities locally, nationally, and around the world. As we celebrate and reflect on the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s first six decades with this special issue of our magazine, I would like to take a moment to focus on our own community — FSPH students, faculty, staff, graduates, collaborators, and supporters.

Our UCLA Fielding community includes more than 11,000 individuals from more than 70 countries who have come to our school to learn, study, and apply public health concepts and skills before going on to positions of leadership. Working tirelessly — and, all too often, with little public recognition — these FSPH graduates have advanced health in profound and often incalculable ways.

Each fall since UCLA Fielding opened its doors in 1961, our community has benefited from an influx of talented and committed students who enroll at FSPH. Hailing from diverse backgrounds and harboring wide-ranging goals, they bring infectious enthusiasm and optimism into our community, enriching all of us with their lived experiences, new perspectives, and determination to reimagine what can be achieved. Along with those entering our established programs, I am excited to welcome students into our newest academic offerings this fall: the initial classes of our new Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science undergraduate public health degree program, as well as the first cohort of students in our Master of Data Science in Health degree program.

Students are drawn to UCLA Fielding by the world-renowned experts who have populated our faculty since the beginning. Ranging from scholars who provide the evidence that identifies problems and informs solutions, to the leaders in public health practice who turn research into action, FSPH faculty and staff have addressed the most pressing public health issues since day one. In addition to preparing the next generation of public health practitioners and academics, they have produced pivotal research as well as partnering with policymakers, community leaders, and experts in other fields to translate the best evidence into initiatives that promote stronger communities and better health.

Building on the impactful work that got us to this point, our FSPH community has never been more vital. In early 2020, when a novel coronavirus began to spread across the globe, UCLA Fielding faculty, students, and staff stepped up to provide leadership and guidance wherever it was sought. In the face of the worst pandemic in a century, they moved quickly and, from the start, have consulted with university, community, and governmental leaders; delivered evidence-based advice through the news media and public forums; and ushered new public health workers into the fold through training in California and abroad.

They shed light on the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on low-income and BIPOC

communities, fueled by racism, xenophobia, and structural inequities. When effective vaccines emerged, they educated the public and local leaders about the urgent need for access among traditionally overlooked communities.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic remains with us, we must prepare for the inevitability of other emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Our faculty continue to collaborate at home and abroad on efforts to prevent, detect, and control these outbreaks. Of course, other daunting challenges loom before us — and there, too, UCLA Fielding is at the forefront, whether it’s addressing the unacceptable disparities in health; finding ways to ensure that everyone has access to evidence-based, high-quality, affordable healthcare; or confronting the urgent threat to public health posed by the escalating climate crisis.

Tackling these and other seemingly intractable problems requires diverse teams of dedicated experts capable of looking at these issues through multiple lenses, gathering input from a variety of sources, and working together on innovative, evidence-based solutions. In this way, our community is well positioned to push the boundaries of what is possible. I am particularly heartened by the infusion of early-career faculty we have recruited to join UCLA Fielding in the last several years. With their energy, collaborative spirit, and the diversity of backgrounds and expertise they have brought to our school, I’m more confident than ever in our ability to successfully take on the pressing issues before us.

So many individuals comprise our FSPH community — graduates, some of whom are years removed and miles away from UCLA Fielding, along with current students and members of our faculty and staff; valuable partners who collaborate with FSPH on policies and programs, or facilitate field experiences for our students; as well as supporters whose financial contributions enable innovative research to be conducted, or allow a student to overcome economic barriers that might otherwise prevent them from enrolling.

Our UCLA Fielding community encompasses all of these people and so many more.

We are diverse in our backgrounds, experiences, and interests, but we also share certain characteristics. More than any community I know, ours is filled with people who are caring, selfless, and united in a common mission to contribute to a healthier, more equitable world. We appreciate and value everyone who is part of FSPH, and if you are just becoming acquainted with the people and work of our school, we hope you will join us. Together, our community has achieved so much over these 60-plus years. I can’t wait to see all that you make possible in the years ahead.

Dr. Ron Brookmeyer Dean

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C O N T E N T S 60TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

PROGRESS AND PROMISE 06 Fighting a Rigged System Drs. Gilbert C. Gee and Sean DarlingHammond address structural racism and how public health can help create a more just society

18 Student Perspectives: Department of Health Policy and Management First-person accounts on what drives these individuals to make a difference

38 Learning From Outbreaks Drs. Roger Detels and Matthew Mimiaga on HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, and the specter of future pandemics

22 Harnessing ‘Big Data’ Drs. Sudipto Banerjee and Hua Zhou discuss the fast-changing field of biostatistics and turning the explosion of information into better health

42 Student Perspectives: Department of Epidemiology First-person accounts on what drives these individuals to make a difference

10 Student Perspectives: Department of Community Health Sciences First-person accounts on what drives these individuals to make a difference

46 Generating Evidence for Impact Drs. James Macinko and Zuo-Feng Zhang explain how FSPH research drives advances

12 A History of Impact A chronology, interspersed throughout the Progress and Promise section, of some of the many FSPH milestones

52 Meeting the Challenges Ahead Dean Ron Brookmeyer and Dr. Yifang Zhu outline the school’s contributions over the years and how it is poised to lead in the decades to come

14 Lifting All Communities Drs. Roshan Bastani and Naomi Zewde on the pursuit of health equity and where we go from here

FIELDING FEATURES 26 Student Perspectives: Department of Biostatistics First-person accounts on what drives these individuals to make a difference 30 Exposing Environmental Injustices Drs. Beate Ritz and Lara Cushing on historically unequal burdens and how climate change threatens to make them worse 34 Student Perspectives: Department of Environmental Health Sciences First-person accounts on what drives these individuals to make a difference

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56 Building a Foundation in Destructive Times Dr. Alina Dorian partners with leaders to develop public health capacity in Armenia and Artsakh

59 Taming Wildfires’ Far-Reaching Effects Dr. Miriam Marlier addresses the implications of one consequence of climate change

74 School Work

78 Faculty Honors & Service 79 Bookshelf 80 Grants & Contracts

60 Leveraging Social Media’s Potential Dr. Philip Massey on the platforms’ power to spread health information — and misinformation 61 Forward Thinking An analysis led by Dr. Ninez Ponce lays out what California must do today to ensure health equity tomorrow

DEPARTMENTS 62 Graduates Making a Difference Alums building a healthier future around the world; UCLA Fielding Hall of Fame inductees 66 Transformative Investments The Gordon-Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health; Building a Healthier Future donor honor roll; Planned Giving: the Gerald F. Kominski Health Policy Fellowship; UCLA Legacy Society members

Dr. Ron Brookmeyer Dean MAGAZINE STAFF Carla Denly Executive Editor & Associate Dean for Marketing and Communications Dan Gordon Editor & Writer Rent Control Creative Design Direction Eileen Si Editorial Assistant Anna Elgart Photography Coordinator UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Website: ph.ucla.edu

EDITORIAL BOARD Haroutune K. Armenian, MD, DrPH Professorin-Residence, Epidemiology; Thomas R. Belin, PhD Professor, Biostatistics; Pamina Gorbach, DrPH Professor, Epidemiology; Moira Inkelas, PhD Professor, Health Policy and Management; Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, PhD, MN Professor Emeritus, Community Health Sciences; Cathy Lang, PhD Assistant Dean for Research; Adjunct Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences; James Macinko, PhD Associate Dean for Research; Michael Prelip, DPA Professor, Community Health Sciences; Beate Ritz, PhD Professor, Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences; May C. Wang, DrPH Professor, Community Health Sciences; Zuo-Feng Zhang, MD, PhD Professor and Chair, Epidemiology; Yifang Zhu, PhD Professor, Environmental Health Sciences; Frederick Zimmerman, PhD Professor, Health Policy and Management; Joana (JoJo) Fernandez and Geneva Vogelheim Past CoPresidents, Public Health Student Association; Lori S. Pelliccioni, JD, MPH ’96, PhD ’02 Past President, Public Health Alumni Association

PHOTOGRAPHY & ILLUSTRATION Sébastien Thibault: front cover. Jane Houle Photography: Dean’s Message; p. 37: Heymann, person holding fruit; p.

44: student in garden; p. 51: Brookmeyer; p. 56; pp. 76-77: FSPH exterior. Alexandra Foley Photography: TOC: Gee and Darling-Hammond, Bastani and Zewde, Banerjee and Zhou, Epidemiology students, Transformative Investments photo; pp. 7, 10, 11, 15, 18, 19, 23, 26, 27, 31, 34, 35, 39, 42, 43, 47; p. 51: celebration; pp. 53, 66, 74; p. 76: Commencement address; back cover. Unsplash/Patrick Perkins: TOC: wildfire; p. 59. Unsplash/Todd Kent: pp. 4-5. UCLA Library Special Collections: p. 12: campus map. Unsplash/Clique Images: p. 21: person running up stairs. 123rf/senkhammoo: p. 28.

Unsplash/Martin Adams: p. 29: L.A. skyline. Margaret Molloy: p. 37: Paul Torrens Health Forum. Unsplash/Chris Henry: p. 45: Black Lives Matter sign. iStock: p. 45: parkclosed sign, vaccination; pp. 60-63; p. 64: climate change; p.

65; pp. 84, inside back cover. Morgan Shidler Photography: p. 51: Commencement. Adobe Stock/Juliabatsheva: p. 64: equity. L.A. County Department of Public Health: p. 75: Aliso Canyon. © Academic Press: Reference Module in Food Science, Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition, 4th Edition: p.

79: book cover for Chen chapter. © Routledge: Handbook of Classroom Management: p. 79: book cover for DarlingHammond chapter. Annual Reviews: p. 79: Fielding book cover; Kaplan/Hayes book cover. © University of California Press: Equality Within Our Lifetimes: p. 79: Heymann/ Sprague/Raub book cover. © Springer Cham: Handbook of Substance Misuse and Addictions: p. 79: book cover for Mimiaga chapter. © AIHA: Biological Monitoring: A Practical Field Manual: p. 79: Que Hee book cover. COURTESY OF: FSPH Archive: TOC: students in front of sign; all photos for A History of Impact section not otherwise credited.

Jacquelyn Kaster: p. 37: Torrens black-and-white photo. Dr. Alina Dorian: TOC: COVID-19 billboard; pp. 57-58. Arlecia Powell-Halley: TOC: School Work photo; p. 75: conference photos. NYU Medical Archives: p. 13: Milton Roemer. Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi: p. 21: Afifi. Dr. Linda Rosenstock: p. 28: Rosenstock. Gerald F. Kominski: p. 72.

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BUILDING A HEALTHIER FUTURE TOGETHER Six decades equates to a blink of an eye in the context of human history. But for the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, which recently celebrated 60 years as a school, it’s been a period of remarkable consequence, characterized by far too many impactful moments to fit into a single issue of this magazine.

Throughout the school’s history, thousands of individuals — FSPH students, faculty, staff, graduates, and collaborators — have educated, researched, and applied their public health knowledge and skills in partnerships with communities, policymakers, and leaders across a wide range of professions and organizations. They have done so in service to the betterment of the public’s health and well-being, at home in Los Angeles and around the world.

FSPH embarks on its next six decades at a time of monumental public health challenges. Never has the work of building a healthier future together carried more importance. And as the school’s community members, collaborators, and allies build on the foundation established during the school’s first six decades, UCLA Fielding is poised for even greater impact in the years to come.

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PROGRESS AND PROMISE The following pages reflect on some of the dramatic strides in public health since FSPH was established in 1961 — including just a few of the school’s many historic and ongoing contributions to that progress — as well as looking to the promise ahead.

Pairs of UCLA Fielding faculty with overlapping public health interests discuss how their fields have evolved and advanced, today’s challenges, and where they derive hope. Dean Ron Brookmeyer and Dr. Yifang Zhu, who recently concluded her tenure as senior associate dean for academic programs, assess FSPH’s overall impact along with opportunities for the future, and current Associate Dean for Research James Macinko and his predecessor, Dr. ZuoFeng Zhang, consider the vital role of FSPH research. Finally, UCLA Fielding students and 2023 graduates write about what compelled them to pursue their chosen area of public health, the difference they hope to make, and how their FSPH experience has prepared them.

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FIGHTING A RIGGED SYSTEM When UCLA’s public health school opened in 1961, the U.S. civil rights movement was gaining momentum. That year, student activists launched freedom rides challenging segregation on interstate buses. Two years later, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The year after that, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. And yet, nearly six decades later, the police killing of George Floyd forced a reckoning with the reality that for whatever progress has been made since the 1960s, entrenched structural forces fueled by racism, xenophobia, and more subtle forms of bias continue to plague our society — ensuring, among other things, continuing inequities in health.

Only in recent years has the role of structural racism and other forms of discrimination become a major topic of public health inquiry and action. Dr. Gilbert C. Gee (opposite page, left), professor and chair of UCLA Fielding’s Department of Community Health Sciences, was among the few focusing on these issues when he began his career; Gee, who joined the school’s faculty in 2007, studies racism and other inequities in social determinants of health among racial/ethnic and immigrant communities. Dr. Sean Darling-Hammond (opposite page, right), an assistant professor of community health sciences and biostatistics who arrived at FSPH in 2022, is an attorney and public policy expert whose work seeks to identify the causes and consequences of racial bias, as well as the mechanisms that might ameliorate bias and its impacts.

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and health many generations ago. But only in recent years has it become more accepted in mainstream public health.

“ THE FORCES OF EQUILIBRIUM IN OUR SOCIETY ARE TOWARD INEQUALITY, AND WE HAVEN’T ACTUALLY DISMANTLED THE STRUCTURES THAT HOLD EVERYTHING TOGETHER.” — DR. GILBERT C. GEE

WHAT DREW YOU TO UCLA FIELDING? SEAN DARLING-HAMMOND: I believe combating structural racism requires structural change, and that structural change requires an interdisciplinary approach.

What makes FSPH special is that it brings together scholars with expertise in both diverse methods — like randomized controlled trials, econometrics, and qualitative analysis — and diverse scholarly traditions like public health, psychology, sociology, and law. Scholars here marshal a truly interdisciplinary approach to generate the kinds of deep insights that can drive the structural change we need.

GILBERT C. GEE: One of the historic strengths of our school is its focus beyond the individual. As far back as the 1960s, Leo Reeder, a founder of what would become FSPH’s Department of Community Health Sciences, was a prominent medical sociologist interested in the forces of society that stratify health. He and many of the CHS faculty who followed — such as Steve Wallace, Carol Aneshensel, Margie Kagawa-Singer, and Anne Pebley — understood that while individuals are important, we need to look intensively at policies and structural inequities in our society.

WHEN DID STRUCTURAL RACISM AND OTHER FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION BEGIN TO BE VIEWED THROUGH A PUBLIC HEALTH LENS? GG: Racism as a public health issue has been around a long time, but as a topic that people take seriously, it is a relatively new phenomenon. Scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois, and activists such as the Black Panthers, connected racism 8

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WHAT MOTIVATED EACH OF YOU TO GET INVOLVED IN THIS AREA OF STUDY? SDH: In my experience as a legal practitioner, I saw how racial bias in juvenile institutions led many low-income Black and Latinx youth to be uniquely vulnerable to trajectories of harm, exclusion, and mental health challenges. That led me to work with other scholars to reduce racial bias through psychological interventions, and to explore the potential of intergroup contact to reduce bias at a population level.

GG: In the 1990s, when I was a grad student at Johns Hopkins, I was invited to give a talk to the master’s class on race and health and spent well over a month thinking about these issues. It was easy to describe racial differences in health, but what explained them? I went through the usual suspects — social class, access to care, culture — and none made sense when you considered the totality of the disparities.

The only thing that made sense that we hadn’t grappled with was racism. That lecture launched my interest and my career.

WITH MORE INQUIRY, WHAT ARE WE LEARNING ABOUT THE PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACT OF RACISM, AND WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS YET TO BE ANSWERED? SDH: We now understand that racial bias drives inequity not simply because it makes us consciously decide whom we’ll give advantages to, but because it has a subconscious impact on how we respond in situations where there is discretion and ambiguity. That allows us to design and test interventions that shift mindsets and behaviors for teachers and parole officers in ways that reduce racial disparities in school discipline and juvenile outcomes, among other things, and can help create a more just society.

GG: We need to better understand individual experiences — the biological pathways whereby discrimination gets into the body and affects the brain and immune system. It’s also important to identify the policies and procedures within specific institutions, like medicine and policing, that create inequities. But at an even higher level, how do institutions collaborate to create this web of racial, gendered, disability-based, transphobic, etc., inequality that is so durable? The forces of equilibrium in our society are toward inequality, and we haven’t actually dismantled the structures that hold everything together.

SDH: In my work, I have sometimes looked at racism as being potentially intractable, and have evaluated interventions that work by sidelining or circumventing our mental recruitment of biased beliefs. But there is also interesting research that treats racial bias as a malleable construct. Especially during COVID-19, we saw how political rhetoric that stigmatized Asian individuals increased anti-Asian racial bias. But perhaps if rhetoric can increase bias, it can also reduce it. Perhaps if we articulate our views about racial groups and racial inequality in fruitful ways, we can reduce racial bias and animus at a population level.

Building a Healthier Future Together

IN WHAT WAYS HAS COVID-19 MAGNIFIED THESE ISSUES? SDH: COVID clarified how structural racism can drive negative health outcomes. Even in Hurricane Katrina, when Black individuals experienced this natural disaster in a more negative way, it was partially because generations of Black people had to locate near levees, so you could point to historical factors. But COVID was different.

No one was immune — and yet, because of structural racism, mortality and incidence rates were markedly higher for Black and Latinx people, and particularly in the counties where anti-Black bias was highest.

GG: COVID also helped put Asian American concerns in the national spotlight as a conversation point. Much of the time, Asian Americans are talked about as a model minority and used as a tool to argue there’s nothing wrong with American society with regard to inequality. That’s a false narrative, because Asian Americans encounter many disparities and inequalities. After COVID, more people are talking about Asian Americans in regard to civil rights.

WHAT IS IT YOU HOPE TO INSTILL IN YOUR STUDENTS TO HELP THEM SUCCESSFULLY ADDRESS THESE ISSUES? GG: A major priority for me is to bring people to research as a career who have historically not been part of the research process. That requires shedding all the insecurities we are taught as oppressed people. We are taught not to believe in our own ideas, to be overly deferential. How do

you persevere as an academic through disappointments and criticism? The best advice I have is to channel your emotions.

The emotions that drive me are anger and love — anger at all the inequities, and love for the communities that have fought to provide the privileges I have, and hope to pass forward.

SDH: I agree with Gil — it’s helping students develop a growth mindset so they can overcome the imposter syndrome and internalized beliefs that often stop members of marginalized communities from engaging in this work for an entire career. That means making sure students of all backgrounds can gain the skills they need to help their communities thrive. It also means teaching them how best to collaborate with communities, which requires shedding assumptions, listening to what the community is experiencing, and working with, not working on.

WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES YOU HOPEFUL ABOUT PUBLIC HEALTH’S ROLE IN TAKING THESE ISSUES ON IN THE FUTURE? SDH: We have people at FSPH who have invested their intellectual energy and capital into identifying, improving, and evaluating potential solutions to problems we once thought were intractable. That’s incredibly invigorating.

On the flip side, we’re educating a generation of possibilists.

They’re not asking what it is, they’re asking what can be. It’s been magical to watch students approach the world with this possibilistic lens. If we give them the tools to take that possibilism to wherever it can go, the sky’s the limit.

“ IT’S BEEN MAGICAL TO WATCH STUDENTS APPROACH THE WORLD WITH THIS POSSIBILISTIC LENS. IF WE GIVE THEM THE TOOLS TO TAKE THAT POSSIBILISM TO WHEREVER IT CAN GO, THE SKY’S THE LIMIT.” — DR. SEAN DARLING-HAMMOND

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Addressing Disparities in Prehospital Care

Closing Gaps in Disaster Resilience

Esmeralda Melgoza PhD Candidate, Community Health Sciences

Matthew Martinez MPH Student, Community Health Sciences

I study disparities in the prehospital care system, with a focus on Latinx older adults, under the mentorship of Dr. Hiram Beltran-Sanchez. I can trace that interest to 2015, when my monolingual Spanish-speaking grandmother was involved in a hit-and-run accident that resulted in a head injury, broken leg, and multiple contusions and lacerations.

When emergency medical services arrived, she could not communicate with the first responders because they did not speak Spanish. That language barrier contributed to my family not being notified about the car accident until hours later. I vowed to conduct research designed to shape policy and practice in a way that makes the prehospital care system more equitable.

In addition to my doctoral research, being a certified health education specialist provided me with the foundation to take on a proactive role during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on the Latinx older-adult community amplified deep-rooted preexisting inequities. I joined the Virtual Training Academy (VTA), a partnership among UCLA Fielding, UCLA Extension, UC San Francisco, and the California Department of Public Health, under the leadership of Drs. Michael Prelip and Alina Dorian.

During my three years with the VTA, I helped to train over 15,000 contact tracers and case investigators. I also worked with the VTA team to ensure trainings were available in both English and Spanish.

As a disaster responder, I provide comfort, care, and support to people on one of their worst days. Working closely with the community in this manner is beneficial, but also exposes me to the complex challenges people must navigate after a disaster. I quickly noticed that I often respond to the same neighborhoods, and the individuals I serve reflect my cultural background. It is difficult to consistently see people who remind me of my community losing everything and having to rebuild their lives with limited resources. A clear pattern emerged that those with lower income, limited English comprehension, or lack of a local social network face the greatest barriers to recovery.

After witnessing these disparities firsthand, I have looked to the field of public health to provide more sustainable solutions to disaster-related problems. In FSPH’s Department of Community Health Sciences, I have learned how to partner with community members to understand their needs and strengths. I plan to continue efforts to create more resilient communities through inclusive disaster preparedness programs — working with institutions to introduce more equitable disaster relief practices while ensuring that our disaster workforce is culturally competent and representative of the communities we serve.

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Building a Healthier Future Together

Understanding Racism as a Health Determinant

Advancing Reproductive Equity and Autonomy

Aisha Fletcher PhD Student, Community Health Sciences

Allie Wollum PhD Candidate, Community Health Sciences

Black men have the lowest life expectancy and highest mortality rate among all racial or ethnic groups in the United States. In my home state of Mississippi, Black men have the highest prostate cancer death rate in the nation. These data are personal to me because they reflect my father’s premature death from this disease. Upon my father’s passing, I asked his doctor to help me understand the cause of his untimely death. The doctor simply responded, “his race.” This life-changing experience influenced my career trajectory and began my journey to understand race, and subsequently racism, as determinants of health.

As an FSPH doctoral student, my work with Dr. Chandra Ford and the Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health provided me with the foundational skills to understand the complexities of structural racism, racial discrimination, and health. My current work with Dr. Courtney Thomas Tobin will foster my understanding of the linkages between racism, race-based psychosocial stressors, and disease manifestation. Studying under the tutelage of these professors in a department with values focused on social justice, equity, and academic excellence has inspired me to pursue rigorous and evidence-based research that substantiates and challenges systemic inequities experienced by marginalized and disenfranchised populations.

For too long, policies, social and economic inequities, and social norms have prevented people from realizing reproductive autonomy. The ability to decide whether and when to have children is key to people being able to control their bodies and lives. From a young age, I was interested in gender justice issues. Studying public health has allowed me to develop language and frameworks to understand inequities and set me on a path to pursue global sexual and reproductive health research.

I am motivated by research that can generate actionable change. In my experience, this requires deep partnerships among advocates, practitioners, community members, policymakers, and providers who have the lived experiences and expertise to ensure research is grounded in community priorities. Over the past decade, my research has focused on novel forms of sexual and reproductive healthcare, including pharmacist models, telemedicine, and community-based models for abortion and contraception care, as well as barriers and facilitators to accessing person-centered reproductive care. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the proliferation of restrictive policies in the U.S. that prevent people from accessing the care they need to control their reproductive lives, I hope my research can advance reproductive equity and autonomy, drawing lessons from partners who promote sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice every day.

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A HISTORY OF IMPACT

1940s – 1960s Public health education at UCLA predated the establishment of a school of public health by 15 years. In 1946, UCLA began offering undergraduate public health instruction as part of a University of California systemwide school. The UCLA Department of Public Health was housed in Building 3T, a wartime surplus barrack located at the site where Charles E. Young Research Library is today on the northern part of the campus (see zoomed-in section of map, below). The first four students received BS degrees in public health at UCLA in 1948.

The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has been working to build a healthier future for more than six decades.

The examples that follow, interspersed throughout this

UCLA CAMPUS AERIAL DRAWING, 1948

Dr. A. Harry Bliss, who had been a public health sanitary officer and medical inspector, was recruited to develop a curriculum and served as chair of UCLA’s public health department from 1947 to 1956. Bliss pushed for an independent public health school at UCLA, and brought in lecturers from the Los Angeles City Health Department to bolster the program. Some of the lecturers from the city’s health department would become the new school’s first faculty members.

section, are just a few of the many ways.

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In 1954, Dr. Wilton Halverson, a former director of public health for the state of California, was named associate dean of the University of California’s public health program at UCLA. Halverson appointed Drs. John Chapman, Wilfrid Dixon, and Lenor S. (Steve) Goerke to

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develop programs in epidemiology, biostatistics, and health administration, respectively.

In 1957, UCLA began offering its first program leading to an advanced public health degree.

Dr. Gladys Emerson, who, with her husband, Oliver, was the first to isolate vitamin E in 1936, led the school’s nutrition division.

Dr. Ruth Roemer (pictured, next page) was a labor lawyer in the 1940s and 1950s, but by the time she joined the FSPH faculty in 1962, she had begun putting her legal and advocacy skills toward advancing public health. She would make her mark in many realms: as an ardent campaigner for fluoridation of public water supplies; as a proponent of

reproductive freedom; and as a leader in providing analyses and advocacy for tobacco control legislation around the world.

An annual session of the Paul Torrens Health Forum at UCLA FSPH is held in Roemer’s honor.

The UCLA School of Public Health was established as an independent school by the University of California Regents on March 17, 1961, with headquarters in the Home Economics Building (now Campbell Hall). Dr. Lenor S. (Steve) Goerke (speaking), who had a long career as a local health officer and had served as medical director of the L.A. City Health Department prior to joining the UCLA faculty, was named the school’s first dean. The new school started with 57 faculty members in seven divisions: Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health Administration, Occupational Health, Health Education, Environmental Health, and Public Health Nutrition. Graduate programs leading to MS, MPH, PhD, and DrPH degrees were offered, along with an undergraduate BS degree.

was also known for “Roemer’s Law” — the concept, based on a series of studies he led, that physicians tend to fill the number of hospital beds available to them.

In 1968, the school moved into the UCLA Center for Health Sciences building that it continues to call home. The building was the site of the university’s hospital, UCLA Medical Center, until Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center opened across the street in 2008.

After President Lyndon Johnson’s historic signing of Medicare into law in 1965, the school was designated as a Center for Training for the Medicare Program for the Southwest States, with Dr. Milton Roemer (pictured, right), a professor of health services, as director. Roemer, a champion of universal health insurance who worked in 71 countries and wrote the two-volume tome “National Health Systems of the World,”

The school’s first doctoral graduate was Dr. Virginia A. Clark, who earned a PhD in Biostatistics in 1963. Clark went on to author several textbooks on statistics and served as a faculty member at the school until her retirement.

1967 FSPH YEARBOOK COVER

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LIFTING ALL COMMUNITIES Healthy People 2030, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ data-driven objectives for improving the nation’s health, defines health equity as “the attainment of the highest level of health for all people.” Within the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s first five years, the civil rights movement and the passage of historic Medicare and Medicaid legislation suggested the country was making progress toward that lofty goal. But today, wide gaps persist across communities in health and healthcare, driven by factors such as discrimination, income, housing, and education. One’s ZIP code remains a better predictor of life expectancy than their genetic code. And although the Affordable Care Act brought advances, the U.S. remains an outlier among high-income countries in not providing universal healthcare.

Addressing gaps in equity and advancing health through partnerships with communities and policymakers has been a defining characteristic of work at UCLA Fielding since its inception. Dr. Roshan Bastani (opposite page, left), FSPH professor of health policy and management and director of the FSPH-based UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity, has been a leader in that effort since joining the school’s faculty in 1987.

Bastani, a social and health psychologist, has devoted her career to addressing disparities in cancer and other health outcomes through rigorous research and pragmatic interventions, working in close partnership with communities. Dr. Naomi Zewde (opposite page, right), who came to the school in 2022 as an assistant professor of health policy and management, is a public policy scholar who focuses on how public institutions can deliver health, medical care, and economic security across the income distribution — and strategies for compressing that distribution to enhance equity.

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ALTHOUGH YOUR WORK IS VERY DIFFERENT, BOTH OF YOU APPLY YOUR EXPERTISE TO PURSUING HEALTH EQUITY. WHY IS THAT SO IMPORTANT TO YOU? NAOMI ZEWDE: The U.S. does such a poor job of equitably financing healthcare. We definitely can do it; other countries have figured it out. It’s economically feasible, administratively feasible, but something prevents us from using democratic levers in our collective best interests. Why can’t the 99% get a better healthcare system? I care about that.

ROSHAN BASTANI: I grew up in India and saw a lot of inequities in the social factors that drive disparities in health and healthcare. With my training in social psychology, I felt I could contribute what I had learned about drivers of human behavior to help disadvantaged groups overcome some of the barriers conferred by broader social factors. No matter what the disease, it is the same marginalized populations that experience disparities, resulting from the interactions of biology with the social environment. That is something I have worked to change.

HOW HAS PUBLIC HEALTH’S APPROACH TO HEALTH EQUITY ISSUES EVOLVED IN THE TIME YOU’VE BEEN IN THE FIELD? RB: Early in my career, the approach among many academics was that “I know how to do this; I’m going to come and save you.” That’s the wrong attitude. The people who know better are the ones who are experiencing the inequities and the people on the ground working with those groups. We have seen a gradual evolution over time toward collaboration and working with what we call community assets, which are present in

all communities. We have also learned that it is important to tailor our approaches to the particular context and population characteristics of the groups we are trying to assist.

NZ: In terms of insurance, when I began my career there was a belief that the consumer-directed health plan should have high deductibles so that consumers would price shop and have skin in the game. Over time, deductibles have increased, but that price shopping hasn’t driven savings. People still go to their doctor, their doctor tells them what to do, and they end up financially burdened.

Today’s cost-savings innovations are more on the supply side — prior authorizations, narrow networks, managed care.

The problem is that these generate their own inequalities. If you have less English fluency, you’re less likely to overcome a prior authorization, for example. So it’s still an evolving landscape in terms of how we get people the care they need.

The other change I’ve noticed is that people talk about race much more now. I don’t know where that will lead, but it’s a reflection of trying to make progress on these big, important issues. It’s a signal, for people like myself, that we have opportunities to express what a better world could look like.

WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND TO BE THE BEST WAY YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ADVANCING THE POLICIES THAT WOULD PROMOTE EQUITY? NZ: A lot of it is around advocacy. I’ve come to understand that being an activist is a job, and that my role is to provide information that can help activists build power.

At FSPH, the California Health Interview Survey [CHIS]

“ AS ACADEMICS, WE PRODUCE DATA THAT SUPPLY ACTIVISTS WITH FACTS THEY CAN USE AS FUEL. ROOTED IN RESEARCH BUT UNDERSTANDING THE NEEDS OF ADVOCATES, WE CAN CONTRIBUTE TO BUILDING BETTER STRUCTURES.” — DR. NAOMI ZEWDE

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is great because it provides representative data on different populations. When communities go to legislators with concerns, they have stories, but to be able to back those up with data is a powerful way to communicate. As academics, we produce data that supply activists with facts they can use as fuel. Rooted in research but understanding the needs of advocates, we can contribute to building better structures.

RB: You do need legislators who are open to listening.

In California, we have that. That’s not true in many parts of the country, where there are entrenched beliefs that are difficult to change. Look at the issue of gun violence. How many deaths do we need to have meaningful gun legislation?

We saw how divisive mask and vaccine mandates were.

In many cases, we know the answers in public health, but it’s not so easy to achieve necessary policies. That doesn’t mean we don’t keep trying until we do achieve the change we are seeking. Tobacco product pricing and smoking restrictions are great examples of persistence.

DR. ZEWDE, YOU CAME TO UCLA FIELDING ONLY RECENTLY. WHAT WAS THE DRAW FOR YOU? NZ: The first thing I learned about the school was that I was teaching out of Tom Rice’s [FSPH distinguished professor of health policy and management] textbook, “The Economics of Health Reconsidered,” and it was one of the only health-econ textbooks with anything critical to say about the market for health insurance. We have to teach students the theoretical justifications for the American healthcare system so they can understand why our policies were designed the way they were and how the system functions. But those policies are quite problematic, so the fact that this textbook takes a critical look was really useful. After that I came to learn about Jerry Kominski’s [professor emeritus of health policy and management] work, which was instrumental in reducing the burden of deductibles under the Affordable Care Act in California.

AND DR. BASTANI, WHAT WAS THE SCHOOL’S APPEAL FOR YOU WHEN YOU ARRIVED IN 1987?

RB: How applied the research was. I was trained in social psychology, which is much more theoretical. What I loved about FSPH was that everything was done in the real world. One of my first mentors here was Lester Breslow, the former dean of the school who had served as director of public health for California. I had never met anyone like him, who was not just about academics and publishing papers.

He took me under his wing, and I couldn’t believe all of the opportunities I was exposed to for real-world impact.

WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE SCHOOL’S STRENGTHS OVER THE YEARS IN THE FIELD OF HEALTH EQUITY? RB: Our faculty focused on health equity well before it became such a central issue — before the term “health disparities” even existed. And what has distinguished the school’s work all along is not blaming individuals — not saying, “they’re not doing this, they’re not doing that, how can we make them change,” but instead focusing on the larger societal and system structures that produce health

“ WHAT I LOVED ABOUT FSPH WAS THAT EVERYTHING WAS DONE IN THE REAL WORLD. ONE OF MY FIRST MENTORS HERE WAS LESTER BRESLOW. I HAD NEVER MET SOMEONE LIKE HIM, WHO WAS NOT JUST ABOUT ACADEMICS AND PUBLISHING PAPERS.” — DR. ROSHAN BASTANI

inequities. If we change the system, policies, and healthcare providers, we’re going to do more in the long run than if we focus on what the patient or individual “did wrong.”

WHAT MAKES YOU HOPEFUL THAT PROGRESS CAN BE MADE IN HEALTH EQUITY? NZ: I feel optimistic. Take climate change. The vast majority of people want meaningful improvement.

There are solutions out there, and we live in a democracy.

Maybe it’s to be expected that change doesn’t occur overnight. But all we can do is keep moving forward.

RB: There are many examples in public health’s recent past that should give us cause for optimism. Cervical cancer was a major killer in this country and it is almost nonexistent now, although it’s still a major health issue in other parts of the world. We did that. When I was starting, approximately 20% of eligible women were getting mammograms. Now it’s over 80%. But it didn’t happen overnight; it took decades. Same with tobacco — there was a lot of resistance, but over time, most states have adopted the policies that were successful in California. We just have to persist, and over time I believe that change will happen.

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Empowering Populations Through Research

Advocating for Underserved Communities

Linh Chuong PhD Candidate, Health Policy and Management

Ben Olmedo MPH ’23, Health Policy and Management

While everyone is born with potential, not everyone is afforded opportunity. I was. My family is part of the largest refugee resettlement in U.S. history — among the 3.1 million Southeast Asians who fled war, persecution, and genocide.

The seven of us lived in an illegally converted garage for the first five years of our American lives, but we had legal status and all the benefits that confers because advocates and policymakers created pathways for us. Even though my parents can’t speak English and never finished high school, social benefits kept me out of poverty and in school. As my experience attests, the health and well-being of disenfranchised populations relies on society effectively connecting the dots between policy, practice, and people.

In UCLA Fielding, I found a community that has given me the opportunities, guardrails, and parachutes to hone my skills in health systems evaluation research and applied policy. Research and data determine what programs are evidence-based and “deserving” of dollars. Unfortunately, the most disenfranchised may not have the capacity to find data or do research — and, thus, struggle to have their needs and assets recognized. My life’s purpose is to close some of these research gaps, transforming data into actionable outcomes and bridging between policymakers, health systems, and the communities I love.

My journey to public health began as a child in the fruit orchards of Northern California. My path was shaped by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and focused by my experience over the past 10 years as a physician associate (PA) working with vulnerable and underserved communities. Whether picking fruit in an orchard in California, conducting combat operations in Afghanistan, or providing healthcare in rural Alaska, I have experienced a unifying thread of politics and policy decisions having a direct impact on the health and well-being of people.

I decided to become a PA after working with military PAs in Iraq and Afghanistan. I took the skills I learned in the military and combined them with my medical training to provide community-oriented healthcare to vulnerable populations. What I learned is that my ability to help patients is not solely determined by my knowledge and experience, but by policies that determine what level of care I am able to provide. I decided to attend FSPH’s Executive Master of Public Health program to gain the skill set to better navigate policy, improve the management of healthcare organizations, and advocate for positive change to improve the health and well-being of underserved communities across the United States and around the world.

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Tackling Healthcare System Inequities Jessica Salcedo MHA ’23, Health Policy and Management Driven by a profound desire to serve and create impact, my passion for healthcare administration stems from a journey of diverse roles. From volunteering at hospitals to interning with nonprofits, I have witnessed the pressing needs of underserved populations and the influential role of social determinants of health, particularly in communities of color.

My ultimate goal is to lead sustainable initiatives in healthcare as a C-suite executive, tackling public health disparities and system challenges. The UCLA Master of Healthcare Administration program, guided by exceptional professors, has prepared me profoundly for the challenges and responsibilities ahead, instilling in me a deep understanding of healthcare complexities. My professors challenged me to think beyond conventional solutions, embrace new perspectives, and approach problems with a strategic mindset. Their dedication to excellence and unwavering support has empowered me to tackle the upcoming challenges confidently and firmly.

Following graduation, I am embarking on my role as the system level administrative fellow for the Providence Clinical Network, fully aware of the need for innovative and holistic approaches to address community-specific health issues. As a catalyst for change, I will utilize my personal, professional, and educational experiences from UCLA Fielding to contribute to the well-being of my cherished community.

Advancing Immigrant and Refugee Health Heidi West PhD ’23, Health Policy and Management Throughout my early career in international programs and immigrant and refugee services, I found myself continually seeking out scientific evidence to inform our work. This led me to the pursuit of a PhD and finding my home in public health. I was drawn to public health, and health policy specifically, because of the interdisciplinary nature of the research and how the work is meant to have audiences and impact outside of academia. We ask research questions and design studies with the goal of producing science to inform policies, programs, and the delivery of health services — aspects of society that affect the daily lives of people everywhere.

Under the mentorship of Drs. Corrina Moucheraud and Randall Kuhn, I have examined the impact of migration and social structures on health service utilization, advancing the literature about the health of migrant-sending communities in South and Southeast Asia. Through my FSPH training, I have learned how to seek answers to the difficult health equity questions I am drawn to. I also learned how to build an academic career that is meaningful to me and supports the development of the next generation of public health leaders. I look forward to beginning this career as an assistant professor of health policy and management at California State University, Long Beach.

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1960s – 1980s Dr. Ronald Andersen developed a conceptual model in 1968 that would transform the understanding of U.S. healthcare access and has influenced numerous researchers in the decades since.

His Behavioral Model of Health Services Use became a framework for healthcare utilization and cost studies around the world. Andersen, who joined the FSPH faculty in 1991 and is currently professor emeritus of health policy and management, has regularly updated the model over the course of his career while continuing to conduct pivotal research on issues of access to healthcare.

Dr. Lester Breslow became the school’s second dean in 1972.

He served eight years, then remained an active faculty member well into his 90s. The former director of the California Department of Public Health, Breslow earned the nickname “Mr. Public Health” for his leadership and vision. He is credited with moving public health toward a broader health promotion/ disease prevention focus.

Dr. Roger Detels was an epidemiologist at the school in 1981 when a colleague, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, reported the first cases of a new disease affecting men who had sex with men. Detels wasted no time springing to action. Working with UCLA’s Gay and Lesbian Student Association, he recruited volunteers for a cohort study aimed at identifying the risk factors and modes of transmission of whatever was causing the new disease. By 1984, Detels was heading the UCLA site for the ongoing Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS; now called the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study), which has produced critical findings in its nearly four decades.

Recruited to join the school’s faculty in 1972, Dr. Derrick B. Jelliffe spent much of the decade and beyond circling the globe with his wife and research partner, Patrice, to promote breastfeeding and fight corporations that were introducing commercial formulas in low-income countries — where many infants weaned from breast milk in their first year were dying from infections and malnutrition. Their work has been credited with triggering the boycott of Nestlé, the multinational corporation that was accused of aggressively marketing infant formulas in low-income countries, beginning in the late 1970s.

The Public Health Alumni Association was founded in 1974. Raymond Goodman (MPH ’72), a renowned public health physician who would become a longtime champion of the school through his philanthropy and leadership, served as the first president. The same year, the Raymond and Betty Goodman Foundation established the annual Lester Breslow Distinguished Lectureship.

Vasectomies now play an integral role in family planning, but in the mid-1970s, when FSPH was chosen as coordinating center for one of the nation’s largest-ever collaborative studies on the procedure, it wasn’t clear they were safe. That changed after 20

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a landmark study, led by Dr. Frank J. Massey Jr., found that not a single disease occurred significantly more often among vasectomized men than among men who had not had a vasectomy.

The Public Health Student Association was established in 1978 to meet the academic and social needs of the school’s students, promote community involvement, and inspire interest in and advancement of public health as a career.

Dr. Roger Detels, a professor of epidemiology at the school, was named dean in 1980 and served for the next five years.

He is perhaps best known as the leader of the UCLA site of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS; now called the MACS/ WIHS Combined Cohort Study), the longest-running study of the natural history of AIDS, which began in 1984; as well as for his training of scores of public

health professionals in Southeast Asia, India, China, and elsewhere who have led efforts against HIV/AIDS in their countries.

In low-income countries where resources are scarce, multiyear health assessments are often not feasible. Two UCLA Fielding professors, Drs. Ralph Frerichs (pictured below, left) and Susan Scrimshaw, developed methods to enable health planners in these countries to get accurate answers quickly and inexpensively.

In 1972, the year Dr. Lester Breslow became dean, he published a landmark study based on research he began in the early 1960s. Among Breslow’s findings, he determined that a 45-year-old male who followed six of seven healthy habits identified in the study — getting regular exercise and sleep; not smoking, excessively drinking, or snacking between meals; eating breakfast; and maintaining a normal weight — had a life expectancy 11 years longer than a peer who followed three or fewer, along with better-quality years. Although it seems obvious today, at the time it registered as a shock in the medical and public health community.

is now in its 6th edition. His numerous professional accolades include the American Public Health Association’s Mortimer Spiegelman Gold Medal Award for outstanding biostatistician of the year.

Dr. Abdelmonem A. Afifi was appointed the school’s dean in 1985. A current professor of biostatistics and a member of the school’s faculty for nearly 60 years, Afifi was the longest-serving dean, remaining in the position until 2000. An expert in biostatistical methods, his renowned textbook, “Practical Multivariate Analysis,”

In her landmark 1989 book, “Family Size and Achievement,” UCLA Fielding faculty member Dr. Judith Blake presented evidence that far from growing up feeling isolated, only children tended to have better social skills and achieve more years of schooling than children from larger families.

In 1989, the school was restructured into the five departments it has today: Biostatistics, Community Health Sciences, Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology, and Health Services (now called Health Policy and Management).

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HARNESSING ‘BIG DATA’ In 1964, when the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health was in its third year, IBM released System/360, a mainframe computer that would dominate the market through the 1970s. The largest of the machines held 8 megabytes of memory. From there, the growth was exponential. In 1980, the company’s refrigerator-sized IBM 3380 was the first with a gigabyte of hard-drive capacity; today, the smartphones we carry in our pockets have more than 100 times that. And in the era of what is often referred to as “big data,” researchers at UCLA Fielding and beyond can tap into the limitless possibilities presented by high-powered computing, machine learning, and the explosion of information from wide-ranging sources to glean insights and draw conclusions that can improve the health of populations.

What hasn’t changed in the school’s more than six decades is the vital role of biostatisticians in harnessing the data and calculating uncertainties to ensure that scientifically sound conclusions are reached. UCLA Fielding’s new Master of Data Science in Health (MDSH) program continues the school’s tradition of educating students to meet the ever-evolving demands in the field of biostatistics and data science. Dr. Sudipto Banerjee (opposite page, left), FSPH’s senior associate dean for academic programs, is a professor of biostatistics who served as chair of the department for nine years, and is an expert on Bayesian hierarchical modeling and inference for spatially oriented data. Dr. Hua Zhou (opposite page, right), FSPH professor of biostatistics and director of the new MDSH program, who joined the faculty in 2015, is an expert in big data, machine learning, and applications in areas such as genomics, electronic health records, and neuroimaging.

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“ WHEN I WAS A GRADUATE STUDENT IN THE MID-’90S, A SPATIAL DATA SET WITH 150 POINTS WAS CONSIDERED LARGE. TODAY, STUDENTS IN OUR DEPARTMENT WRITE DISSERTATIONS WHERE THEY ARE ANALYZING DATA SETS IN THE TENS OF MILLIONS.” — DR. SUDIPTO BANERJEE

HOW HAS THE FIELD OF DATA SCIENCE IN PUBLIC HEALTH EVOLVED OVER THE COURSE OF YOUR CAREER, PARTICULARLY AS REFLECTED IN THE WORK OF BIOSTATISTICIANS AT UCLA FIELDING? SUDIPTO BANERJEE: It’s been a tsunami of change.

When I was a graduate student in the mid-’90s, a spatial data set with 150 points was considered large. Today, students in our department write dissertations where they are analyzing data sets in the tens of millions. In my years as a student, we operated mostly on mainframe computers.

Now, to be at the cutting edge of research, we need to harness the most powerful computing resources available to us.

And in that regard, our department truly stands out when it comes to fundamental statistical computing research and big-data analysis in diverse fields. We have several faculty members who are undisputed leaders. And that leadership can be traced to the origins of our school. One of the most widely used statistical modeling and data analysis software programs of its time, BMDP [Bio-Medical Data Package], was developed by two of our earliest biostatistics faculty leaders, Frank Massey Jr. and Wilfrid Dixon. Since then, we have had many scholars who made tremendous contributions to the development of the field, including our former dean, Abdelmonem A. Afifi, in multivariate analysis.

HOW HAVE THE TOPICS BIOSTATISTICIANS TAKE ON CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? SB: We are increasingly required to analyze data in very complex scientific settings. Our faculty have strong collaborations with the medical school, working on studies involving genetics and genomics, the analysis of neuroimages, electronic health records, and biobank research. In my domain, we use geographic information systems to analyze population health data over space and time. As the field of public health has evolved, biostatisticians are looking at, for example, understanding the impact of climate change on health. To do that, we have to relate variables of climate science with health science variables. And so, in that regard, a modern biostatistician needs a good understanding of models in climate science as well as models in public health.

HUA ZHOU: That’s a major difference between biostatistics and statistics — biostatisticians spend a lot of effort trying to understand the problem and the special characteristics in the data related to that problem, then designing statistical modeling strategy, based on that understanding, for the analysis. And it’s not only in the analysis stage where biostatisticians are important. It’s also at the stage of study design: What’s optimal to minimize cost, given budget restrictions, while maximizing impact? And after you collect the data, what’s the best method for analyzing it?

WHAT IS MEANT BY “BIG DATA,” AND HOW IS IT CHANGING THE FIELD? SB: The most basic definition is that you are trying to analyze a data set that is too massive to be stored in your hard drive. Traditional statistical methods are simply unable to analyze these massive data sets because

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of memory requirements. But just as important as the size is the question you’re asking of that data set. If you’re just calculating an average from a trillion numbers, that can be done, even in fairly modest computing architectures. But if it involves understanding dependencies and relationships among all these variables, it becomes a much more complicated problem that requires special methods.

HZ: We talk about the V’s of big data. The obvious one is volume, but there are others. A second is variety.

It’s not just numbers. You can have image data, or text data — using blogs or social media to analyze trends in the COVID-19 pandemic, for example. A third is velocity.

With learning or streaming data, like for a self-driving car, sensors are taking pictures every second and you need to make a dynamic decision. Smart devices, such as iPhones and Fitbits, are collecting data in real time, and we’re seeing more applications for health. And a fourth V is veracity. With generative AI and deep learning, data can be faked. Statisticians have long studied uncertainty in the data, and that’s especially relevant now.

HOW IS BIG DATA CHANGING THE SKILLS DEMANDED OF BIOSTATISTICIANS, AND THE WAY UCLA FIELDING EDUCATES THEM? HZ: When I was a student, the textbooks used data sets with a couple of dozen individuals getting measured on five or six variables. You could go out to the job market — say, in the pharmaceutical industry — and get a position as a statistician without much programming experience.

You would just write a statistical analysis plan, someone else would program for you, and then you would interpret the results. Today, when you get a job as a data scientist, the expectation is that you know machine learning and statistical theory, and that you will be able to program and deploy the method to a massive data setting. That’s one of the reasons we revamped our curriculum and established the new Master of Data Science in Health degree program.

There’s a gap between classical training and the current demand for expertise in meeting these big-data challenges.

WHAT IS IT THAT CONTINUES TO MAKE THE BIOSTATISTICIAN’S ROLE IN PUBLIC HEALTH SO ESSENTIAL? SB: In my opinion, the most important aspect of our expertise is the quantification of risks or uncertainties. We protect against spurious and inaccurate scientific conclusions, which offers insurance against, or even prevents, wrong decisions. We can all agree that weather prediction has improved substantially over the years. A major reason is that it has gone from what was purely a physical science exercise to one that brings together the mathematical models from the physical sciences with statistical models.

What can go wrong when sound statistical analysis isn’t incorporated in weather prediction? You might carry an umbrella more than you need to, or not carry one when you need one. But imagine if we were completely off on the number of people we thought would be infected from COVID. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, statisticians were at the forefront of conducting analyses so that the projections

of how this pandemic was going to evolve, and the policies formulated based on those projections, were done in a robust and statistically sound way. This had a massive impact on what policies would be framed amid the pandemic.

WHAT MAKES YOU HOPEFUL, AS A BIOSTATISTICIAN, ABOUT PUBLIC HEALTH’S ABILITY TO TACKLE THE DAUNTING CHALLENGES AHEAD? HZ: I’m excited to be working in such a burgeoning field, where there are so many open questions and challenges.

What makes me happy is seeing our students learning big data techniques and using them to do very impactful research.

SB: I don’t think there has been a time in the history of our profession when data-centric technologies and discoveries have been more important. And when I see my colleagues — incredibly talented, gifted intellectuals and scholars — working to address these challenges, I am very confident of a bright future. With so many gifted, energetic, and skilled young individuals entering this profession, how can I not be optimistic?

“ WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY IS SEEING OUR STUDENTS LEARNING BIG DATA TECHNIQUES AND USING THEM TO DO VERY IMPACTFUL RESEARCH.” — DR. HUA ZHOU

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Informing Policy to Limit Harmful Exposures Valentina Arputhasamy (MS ’21) PhD Student, Biostatistics After completing my undergraduate education, I interned as a financial analyst at a biotechnology company. I was excited to use my skills to contribute to advancing health through disease research and drug development, but my role was mostly restricted to making forecasts, generating reports, and analyzing financial results. While I was certainly making an impact, it felt removed and unsatisfying. This compelled me to seek a position where I could dedicate my time to helping the people around me and contributing to the betterment of society. I became motivated to work toward a career in public health, which led to my pursuit of an MS and PhD in Biostatistics at UCLA Fielding.

My dissertation is focused on developing and implementing statistical models to analyze spatially and temporally oriented exposure data from the Aliso Canyon gas leak disaster of 2015-16 in Los Angeles County. The developments envisioned in my dissertation will enable environmental health researchers and epidemiologists to analyze exposure data from the gas leak to ascertain how public health in surrounding communities has been impacted and what measures and policies can be put in place to mitigate the adverse effects. I’m hopeful that the insights from my research will transform current policies and protect other potentially impacted communities in similarly disastrous situations.

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Detecting Glaucoma Progression Erica Su MS ’20, PhD ’23, Biostatistics The nature of academic research requires us to pose a question and look for an answer in a methodological fashion. Oftentimes in our search for the answer, we find ourselves wondering what the experimental data actually tells us. Years of working as a research assistant sparked my interest in learning how to more effectively analyze data and develop a methodology to facilitate this process. I chose to pursue a doctorate in FSPH’s Department of Biostatistics to better bridge the gap between real-world health problems and statistical methodology.

Glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness worldwide, posing a significant public health burden. There is a pressing need for novel methods to diagnose and monitor glaucoma progression to prevent further loss of vision.

Collaborating with Dr. Kouros Nouri-Mahdavi from the UCLA Stein Eye Institute, I have constructed and implemented statistical models to optimize the detection of glaucoma progression in patients with moderate to advanced glaucoma. In my dissertation work, I have demonstrated improved estimation of rates of progression compared with current methods, providing meaningful contributions toward prevention of vision loss due to glaucoma. In the future, I hope to apply the skills I have developed to diverse problems in public health and medicine.

Building a Healthier Future Together

Advancing LGBTQ+ Healthcare Andrew Chuang MS Student, Biostatistics My interest in disparities in health outcomes affecting the LGBTQ+ community stems from my personal experiences with the healthcare system. In my own life, I have encountered discrimination from healthcare providers when I have sought care. Unfortunately, my experiences are not unique: Multiple studies have found that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to report negative encounters with their healthcare providers than non-LGBTQ+ people.

Under the supervision of Dr. Tom Belin and other faculty and students in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics, I am developing a pilot survey incorporating new methodology to characterize gender identity and sexual orientation. Currently, many national government surveys use questionnaire items that conflate the two concepts, or incorporate binary options for sex that exclude transgender and intersex people. The goal of our group is to develop and pilot test novel questionnaire items that better reflect nuances in gender identity and sexual orientation relevant to public health outcomes. I am grateful for the opportunity to be involved with research at UCLA Fielding, and I hope to continue working on statistical methods that can identify health outcome disparities in the future.

Mining Electronic Health Data Shanpeng Li MS ’19, PhD ’23, Biostatistics The availability of massive electronic health records (EHR) data sets provides the opportunity to conduct health studies in real-world settings. Recent statistical advances that allow researchers to model longitudinal biomarkers (measurable characteristics in the body that can track normal or disease processes) in combination with health outcomes are, in some cases, not equipped to handle massive amounts of EHR data. In other cases, these models incorrectly interpret the complex pattern of longitudinal biomarkers, creating barriers to using this research for clinical decision-making.

My PhD thesis brings an efficiency to this joint modeling such that analyzing an EHR data set with millions of patients takes no longer than minutes. When I applied the methods I developed to a diabetes study in the U.K., the results suggested that unexpected variations in longitudinally measured systolic blood pressure can be highly predictive of cardiovascular disease outcomes and death.

In my future research, I intend to continue to bridge gaps between computational efficiency and methodological development, and hope to extend my work to predicting health outcomes by simultaneously studying multiple biomarkers, as well as combining data from multiple institutions in pursuit of more accurate risk-factor assessments and personalized medicine approaches with both clinical and public health applications.

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1980s – 2000s In 1988, California voters passed Proposition 99, which, among other things, imposed a 25-cent-perpack tax on the sale of cigarettes, with revenue going toward environmental and healthcare programs as well as anti-tobacco ads. A number of the school’s faculty helped to determine the allocation of funds from the tax to schools, community health agencies, researchers, local health departments, and the media for tobacco control initiatives.

The California Department of Public Health reported that the state’s adult smoking rate had declined by 52% from 1988 to 2016, with only Utah having a lower percentage of smokers.

In Southeast Asia, India, China, and elsewhere, many of the most prominent leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS from the 1990s onward held public health degrees from UCLA. The UCLA/ Fogarty International Training Program in Epidemiology Related to HIV/AIDS, initiated by Dr. Roger Detels and continued in collaboration with FSPH faculty and staff, has provided master’s- and doctoral-level training to more than 100 health professionals from Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar, India, China, Vietnam, Laos, Hungary, and Brazil who have gone on to become public health leaders in their respective countries.

The school’s Office of Public Health Practice was established in 1992.

It remains a hub for community engagement activities — promoting and facilitating collaborations among the school’s students, faculty, graduates, staff, and community partners, locally and globally.

In 1995, the school launched two executive-style MPH programs designed to provide public health training for working health professionals, who attend classes on weekends.

The programs continue to be offered by the Department of Community Health Sciences and the Department of Health Policy and Management.

As director of California’s Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants in 1998, FSPH’s Dr. John Froines helped set the stage for California’s leadership in regulating and reducing the health risks associated with exposure to diesel exhaust, which the panel identified as a carcinogenic air contaminant.

Other policies to protect workers and the public from chemicals such as MTBE, lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, and pesticides were informed by the FSPH research of Froines and others.

In 1987, the first of a series of reports by an FSPH research team led

by Drs. E. Richard Brown and Robert O. Valdez found that 22% of California’s under-65 population lacked health insurance.

The group followed those findings with studies breaking down who was uninsured, how it affected their health, and what it cost the healthcare system. The groundbreaking research called attention to a national problem and planted the seeds for healthcare reform in the U.S., culminating in the Affordable Care Act. Brown, who founded FSPH’s UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in 1994 and later founded the center’s California Health Interview Survey, advised presidents, U.S. senators, and state legislators on health policy issues.

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Dr. Linda Rosenstock was appointed dean of the school in 2000 and served until 2012. A recognized authority in occupational and environmental health as well as global public health and science policy, Rosenstock served for nearly seven years as director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, where her efforts earned her the Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award, the highest executive

Fifty years ago, Los Angeles was known as one of the world’s smoggiest cities.

Today, the air is considerably cleaner — despite significant increases in population, energy consumption, and vehicle miles traveled. It’s a success story resulting from aggressive regulatory policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates stationary pollution sources in Southern California; and the California Air Resources Board, which regulates pollution from mobile sources. Many of the key policies of these regulators have been informed by UCLA Fielding faculty research, and many of the leaders of these agencies have been FSPH alums. The cleaner air in Los Angeles is more than just aesthetically pleasing; it’s healthier. Poor ambient air quality is a leading cause of childhood asthma, reduced lung function, cardiovascular disease, poor birth outcomes, and premature death. The turnaround in Los Angeles has served as a model for cities as far away as Beijing, China, where university scientists and policymakers have consulted with FSPH faculty on lessons learned.

service award in the federal government. She is currently a professor of health policy and management and environmental health sciences at the school.

Since 2001, the school’s student-led organization Students of Color for Public Health has been dedicated to strengthening the social support, career networking, and advocacy efforts of the school’s students.

The organization leads the school’s annual National Public Health Week celebration, organizing educational and inspiring talks; provides opportunities for advocacy and collaboration, and to increase physical and mental wellness; and engages with community members.

Dr. Margaret Martin (MPH ’93, DrPH ’98) launched the Harmony Project, an after-school program providing music lessons and mentoring in low-income elementary schools, in 2001.

More than 20 years later, the program has approximately 3,500 active participants in 16 community hubs. Martin recently published results of a study showing significantly improved reading and math scores for students after two years in the program, with the greatest gains made by those with the lowest prior levels of achievement.

In 2000, the Mobile Clinic Project at UCLA was born — a joint volunteer effort among public health, medical, law, and undergraduate students to provide health and social services, as well as referrals, to the Hollywood-area unhoused population during weekly visits.

The project, which now includes graduate students from across campus, originated after leaders of the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition (GWHFC) approached an FSPH group led by Dr. Michael Prelip (MPH ’85), professor of community health sciences. In serving free dinners every night to those experiencing food insecurity in the Hollywood area, GWHFC had noted the desperate need for basic healthcare among clients experiencing homelessness.

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EXPOSING ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICES For anyone driving to the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in the 1960s and 1970s, the most vexing local environmental health challenge could be seen out of the car window, shrouding the surrounding mountains and blurring the downtown skyline. But aggressive regulatory policies and critical contributions from UCLA Fielding faculty and alums drastically improved air quality in one of the world’s smoggiest regions. In 2020s California, too often the air is polluted by wildfires — one of many increasingly frequent and severe weather-related events associated with our changing climate. In recent years, it has become clear that climate change is more than a weather phenomenon; it’s a dire public health concern. What’s more, the public health burdens from climate change, as with other environmental health issues, are disproportionately shouldered by low-income communities and communities of color.

Since joining the UCLA Fielding faculty in 1995, Dr. Beate Ritz (opposite page, right) has been an international leader in illuminating the increased risks of chronic diseases — including neurodegenerative disorders, cancers, adverse birth outcomes, and asthma — from exposure to pesticides, air pollution, and other environmental toxins.

Dr. Lara Cushing (opposite page, left), a member of the FSPH faculty since 2020, focuses on patterns and consequences of social inequalities in exposure to environmental hazards in the context of air pollution and hazardous sites, urban green space and heat islands, oil and gas drilling, drinking-water quality, and sea-level rise. Both Ritz, a professor in the departments of epidemiology and environmental health sciences, and Cushing, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Presidential Chair in Health Equity at UCLA FSPH, have collaborated with communities and policymakers to address the environmental injustices their work exposes.

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“ WE STILL HAVE STARK INEQUALITIES ALONG RACE AND CLASS LINES IN WHO IS LIVING NEAR POLLUTION SOURCES AND WHO IS MOST EXPOSED TO ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS. WHAT HAS CHANGED IS A GREATER AWARENESS FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE.” — DR. LARA CUSHING

THE TWO OF YOU CAME TO UCLA FIELDING 25 YEARS APART. AS SCHOLARS INTERESTED IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT, WHAT DREW YOU TO THE SCHOOL? BEATE RITZ: When I got here, we had some of the greats in terms of air pollution research — Arthur Winer doing amazing atmospheric modeling, John Froines leading the Southern California Particle Center and Supersite, Bill Hinds conducting meticulous air pollution measurements.

But I was the first at our school to do environmental epidemiology. The field was just getting started. And for me, California presented two key issues: air pollution and pesticide exposures. I started with a project on air pollution and vulnerable populations in Los Angeles, and another in the Central Valley on the health effects of pesticide exposures. In the last 30 years, I’ve continued to follow those two angles.

LARA CUSHING: When I joined the faculty, I was already very aware of Beate’s work, because I study exposure to environmental hazards during pregnancy and she was a pioneer in the use of administrative birth records to look at those exposures. In general, what attracted me to the school was the collaborative spirit of the faculty and the diversity of disciplines, including a critical mass of scholars interested in issues of the environment, sustainability, social justice, and community-engaged scholarship. I saw it as a place where I could contribute new advances at the interface of science and policy to advance environmental health and health equity.

WHAT SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN THE FIELD OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE? BR: I started as a physician but was drawn to public health because I thought, with all the systemic 32

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forces at work, reducing exposures and improving systems could reach a lot more people than treating the illnesses resulting from these forces. I’m also from a rural environment, and always felt a kinship to people who work the earth for a living or have to live from low-wage jobs.

LC: I also spent a lot of time in nature as a young person and had a fascination with the way natural systems work. At the same time, I grew up about an hour from the U.S.-Mexico border, which to me is one of the starkest reminders of social inequality and how where you’re born structures the opportunities you have.

HOW HAVE ISSUES OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? LC: Unfortunately, not much has changed. We still have stark inequalities along race and class lines in who is living near pollution sources and who is most exposed to environmental hazards. What has changed is a greater awareness and appreciation within the scientific community for the importance of environmental justice. Advocates have pushed scientists to consider social inequalities in exposures and their implications, and to think more holistically. Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to multiple environmental hazards, and often dealing with social stressors that can exacerbate health effects. Pollutants and industries are regulated in isolation, but the lived experience is that there are cumulative impacts and synergistic effects that may drive health inequalities. We now have a better scientific understanding of cumulative impacts and ways to identify solutions that will help achieve environmental justice.

Building a Healthier Future Together

BR: All of the work that’s been done, including here at our school, has cleaned up the air quite a bit in L.A., and when we clean up the environment in general, that helps everyone. But it hasn’t been enough for the most vulnerable.

When I drive toward Malibu I see Priuses and Teslas on the road, and I know there’s very little exhaust. When I go downtown or toward ports, I see trucks on the freeways and older high-exhaust vehicles in neighborhoods and I can smell the air. So there are still big differences in the concentration of the pollution sources across neighborhoods.

WHAT IMPACT IS CLIMATE CHANGE HAVING ON THESE INEQUALITIES? LC: Climate change is exacerbating environmental inequalities. We know, for example, that low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by extreme weather events and other climate-related hazards like wildfires or flooding that are going to become more frequent and more severe.

Extreme weather events can lead to contaminant releases from industrial facilities and hazardous waste sites, and because marginalized communities are more likely to live on the fence line of industry, they’re disproportionately impacted by any resulting exposures. The reverse is also true — the systemic drivers of social inequality contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Countries with the greatest degrees of wealth and political inequality tend to pollute more, and social inequities can lead to “sacrifice zones” where pollution is concentrated.

BR: The resilience is also unequal. In more affluent communities, people can have good insurance that helps them rebuild after a fire or mudslide, and they are more likely to have the social and economic resources if they need to evacuate. For people in low-income communities, if they lose a workday or can’t get their kids to school, the brunt of the impact is much worse.

FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE GOING TO BE FUTURE LEADERS ON THESE ISSUES, WHAT ARE THE SKILLS THAT ARE MOST NEEDED? BR: More than anything else, it’s critical thinking — an understanding of how to ask questions that are impactful, and not get lost in the details and technical aspects of the work — and the ability to better communicate the scientific results we generate to various constituents, and especially the public.

LC: I completely agree. The ability to collaborate across disciplines is also important. Environmental and public health challenges intersect with economics, with engineering, with the social sciences, with the behavioral sciences. The more we can train students in team science and how to effectively collaborate with communities, the more effective they will be.

WITH SO MUCH TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT, WHAT IS IT THAT LEAVES YOU FEELING HOPEFUL? BR: The forces of nature have given us no choice but to face climate change, and sometimes you need that big push.

I’m hoping this will force us to deal with energy production and how we build and treat our environment, because we have to make that change if we want to survive as a species.

At least in California, we can see some of that already happening. It also gives me hope to see young people waking up to this threat. In the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, my professional organization with a strong focus on climate change and human and planetary health, a third of our members are students and young researchers.

LC: We know what we need to do, and the vast majority of people agree that we should be taking action. We have barriers in terms of enacting that vision, and we need to change our politics and address issues like voting rights and gerrymandering so that the values and opinions of the people are reflected in the policies of our government. But we have the numbers to bring about a more sustainable and equitable future.

“ THE FORCES OF NATURE HAVE GIVEN US NO CHOICE BUT TO FACE CLIMATE CHANGE.” — DR. BEATE RITZ

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Ensuring Equitable Climate Mitigation Policies Qiao Yu PhD Candidate, Environmental Health Sciences Witnessing air pollution’s devastation in low- and middleincome countries, particularly among the vulnerable, sparked my interest in environmental engineering. But my undergraduate journey revealed that technical solutions alone couldn’t fully address this complex issue. Seeking a broader understanding, I studied environmental economics and policies at the graduate level, exploring the dynamics of policy implementation and public policy economics. Now, as a PhD candidate at UCLA Fielding under the guidance of Dr. Yifang Zhu, I am part of a multidisciplinary team working to make climate mitigation policies, such as the zero-emission vehicle policy, more equitable. We aim to improve climate and air quality — and, crucially, to alleviate the long-standing health burdens of disadvantaged communities in California.

UCLA’s rich, interdisciplinary ecosystem has shaped my approach to these grand challenges. With colleagues from FSPH’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences, the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the UCLA Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences, and the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, we’re developing a scalable, replicable, analytical framework to resolve similar issues. Melding technical, economic, and social perspectives, I’m committed to crafting comprehensive solutions to reduce air pollution, foster environmental justice, and mitigate climate change. My journey at UCLA has not only prepared me academically, but has instilled in me a deep sense of purpose and determination to make a difference.

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Reducing Wildfire Pollution Claire Bekker PhD Student, Environmental Health Sciences As an undergraduate studying earth and environmental sciences, I was interested in the cyclical impacts of human activity on the environment, especially when it comes to air quality. Returning home to the San Francisco Bay Area over the summer, I witnessed this firsthand. With wildfires raging across the state, the sky was cloaked in a thick, orange haze.

While some residents were able to stay indoors and avoid the worst effects of smoke exposure, others had to brave the dangerous and sometimes deadly air pollution to work and continue with their daily lives.

Learning about the widespread impacts of wildfire smoke on communities’ health, I wanted to understand how we can mitigate such extreme pollution events through practices such as prescribed burning. Used by indigenous communities a millennium before European colonization of the Western U.S., prescribed burning is the controlled application of fire to reduce forest fuel load and restore ecosystems.

Working with Dr. Miriam Marlier and other researchers at UCLA and beyond, I want to evaluate the trade-offs of how smaller, more frequent prescribed burns will affect air pollution compared to large wildfires, along with the efficacy of prescribed burns in preventing future wildfires and reducing their severity. I hope my research will help inform land-management practices in this fight.

Building a Healthier Future Together

Fighting Job-Related Health Hazards Dorothy Nguyen MS Student, Environmental Health Sciences Environmental contaminants are in the air we breathe and the water we drink; that was more than apparent in my previous research on childhood lead exposure from schools, parks, and homes in Los Angeles. People often don’t get to choose where they work and live, so to be exposed to hazards in places where we are supposed to be safe and making a living is unjust. The same principles of environmental exposure apply to occupational settings, but are even more concentrated and intensified. I witnessed this through my dad, who has multiple trigger fingers after years of uncomfortable repetitive motion in his assembly line work.

I have characterized the properties of coal dust and its effects on lung cells in my FSPH graduate research with Dr. Candace Tsai. Employers are better able to pinpoint changes that can be made to improve worker health and safety if they know what hazards are present and what characteristics of those hazards make them so dangerous. We found that in the mining environment, smaller particles appear to be the most toxic. Small coal particles are expected to increase because more productive mining equipment generates finer particle emissions.

I hope to apply this type of proactive hazard anticipation throughout my career as an occupational safety and health professional.

Addressing Disparities in Climate Effects Alique Berberian PhD Student, Environmental Health Sciences I became passionate about public health and environmental justice issues while I was an undergraduate student. Two experiences were particularly formative: I studied health disparities among indigenous populations during a semester abroad in Chile, and an internship at the United Nations introduced me to major global policy challenges, like threats from climate change.

My doctoral research at FSPH is centered around human exposure to environmental and climate-related hazards from an environmental justice perspective. Working with Dr. Lara Cushing, I use geospatial, statistical, and epidemiological methods to study the health equity implications of climate change, and the effects of extreme weather events on excess contaminant releases from hazardous sites.

Climate change has been linked to more intense hurricanes in parts of the U.S., posing health and safety risks to communities in hurricane-prone areas. Limited resources for preparedness and recovery, as well as disproportionate flooding, contribute to health disparities following extreme storms. Research has also highlighted disparities related to unintentional contaminant releases during hurricanes. Since industries utilizing toxic substances are disproportionately located in communities of color, these communities often face higher risks. Through my research, I hope to improve scientific understanding of these issues and inform regulatory decision-making to reduce disparities and prevent exposure to contaminants related to future climate hazards.

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2000s – 2010s

Research in the early 2000s by Dr. Gail Harrison and one of her doctoral students, Dr. Dena Herman (MPH ’95, PhD ’02), inspired the first legislative change to overhaul the WIC food package, in 2009. Their study found that providing recipients of Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program benefits with vouchers for fruits and vegetables resulted in sustainable increases in consumption of the healthy foods.

In 1996, Dr. Jonathan Fielding, a professor at the school, was appointed acting health officer and senior policy adviser to the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

Two years later, Fielding (pictured, left, receiving the UCLA Medal from Chancellor Gene Block in 2009) was invited to draw up a plan to revitalize public health in the county. The county board of supervisors embraced the plan, and asked him to join the department as its director and public health officer. When the supervisors approved the establishment of a separate Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in 2006, Fielding was appointed as the founding director. He stayed on until 2014, earning a reputation for innovative and proactive initiatives, including the nation’s first A-B-C restaurant-grading program. It was a period during which the school developed ever-increasing ties with the county public health department — personified by Fielding, who continues today in his role on the school’s faculty and as founding co-director with Dr. Michael Jerrett of FSPH’s UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions, which focuses on protecting communities from the ever-increasing effects of climate change.

The Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research (MTPCCR) was established in 2003 at UCLA by two FSPH faculty members, Dr. Marjorie Kagawa-Singer and Dr. Antronette Yancey (MPH ’91), to increase ethnic diversity in the field of cancer disparities research and encourage minority master’s students and master’s-level professionals to pursue doctorates and research careers.

Approximately 150 alums from the MTPCCR at UC San Francisco and UCLA (which was later led by Kagawa-Singer and Dr. Chandra Ford) have gone on to complete doctoral training. Many now hold faculty and other leadership positions at institutions across the country, and are beginning pipeline training programs of their own.

government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and university partners to build the local capacity to conduct high-impact infectious disease research in low-resource, logistically complex settings. Rimoin, currently GordonLevin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health and FSPH professor of epidemiology, is an internationally recognized expert on emerging infections, global health, surveillance systems, and vaccination. Her expertise is regularly featured in news media coverage of COVID-19, mpox, and other emerging infections, and she has consulted with the White House and World Health Organization on mpox. In 2023, Rimoin was named to STAT News’ 2023 STATUS List, “the ultimate list of leaders in life sciences.”

The UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training Program was founded in 2004 by Dr. Anne Rimoin (MPH ’96) as a collaboration among the

A 2013 report prepared by an Institute of Medicine committee chaired by Dr. Patricia Ganz, FSPH distinguished professor of

To recognize the contributions of some of the school’s most outstanding graduates, UCLA FSPH established the Hall of Fame in 2002. As of 2023, a total of 80 members have been inducted.

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health policy and management, concluded that cancer care in the U.S. was a system in crisis, and spelled out changes that could be implemented to improve the quality of care and outcomes for people diagnosed with the disease.

Ganz, a hematologist-oncologist by training, conducted some of the earliest studies on cancer survivorship — helping to identify and address the aftermath of cancer treatment, including the unique ongoing physical, cognitive, and mental health needs of survivors.

Dr. Paul Torrens (pictured on the next page) founded a community forum at FSPH in 2010 where academics and practicing professionals could exchange ideas on healthcare management and policy. In 2016 the popular event, presented by the school’s Center for Healthcare Management, was renamed The Paul Torrens Health Forum at UCLA FSPH in honor of Torrens, who joined

the faculty in 1972 and became a critical mentor to countless FSPH students and alums. In 2019, a gift from Tom and Edna Gordon and the Don S. Levin Trust established the Paul Torrens Chair in Healthcare Management at FSPH.

With the rapid growth of women in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system, Dr. Elizabeth Yano (MSPH ’87, PhD ’96), currently an FSPH adjunct professor of health policy and management, emerged as a leader in the effort to identify and address their healthcare.

Yano co-founded the national VA Women’s Health Research Network in 2010 to promote studies on the needs of women veterans. As director of the VA Health Services Research & Development Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation & Policy at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Yano has led a research enterprise that has identified and addressed gaps in knowledge about women veterans’ health and healthcare needs. In May 2023, she was recognized by VA Secretary Denis McDonough for her contributions to the VA research mission.

Dr. Jody Heymann, distinguished professor of health policy and management, came to the school from McGill University in Montreal to

Starting in the 1990s, Dr. Antronette (Toni) Yancey (MPH ’91), an FSPH professor and founding co-director of FSPH’s UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity, became a powerful and unrelenting advocate for what would become known as Instant Recess.

An innovative and practical strategy for engaging people in a 10-minute exercise break, Instant Recess was designed to be fun, accessible for those of all fitness levels, and easily incorporated into everyday settings, including schools, religious institutions, workplaces, meetings, and community centers. Instant Recess was implemented broadly across the country, and in 2010, when First Lady Michelle Obama launched her Let’s Move! campaign to combat childhood obesity, she embraced the concept and invited Yancey (pictured, above, leading Instant Recess) to serve as an adviser.

serve as dean from 2013 to 2018.

As founding director of the FSPHbased WORLD Policy Analysis Center (WORLD), Heymann leads an unprecedented effort to improve the level and quality of comparative policy data available to policymakers, researchers, and the public. WORLD examines health and social policies and outcomes in all 193 U.N. countries, and works in partnerships to support evidence-based improvements in countries worldwide.

The groundbreaking UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative was launched in 2013 as an integrated, campuswide effort to promote health and wellness of students, staff, and faculty, making

UCLA “the healthiest campus in America.” Envisioned and supported by philanthropists Jane and Terry Semel, the multipronged program was bolstered from the start by the active participation and leadership of FSPH faculty and students. Dr. Wendelin Slusser, an FSPH adjunct professor of community health sciences, currently serves as associate vice provost for what is now known as the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA.

UCLA Fielding established a schoolwide Alumni-Student Mentorship Program in 2014, pairing student mentees with alumni mentors who offer professional insight and guidance.

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LEARNING FROM OUTBREAKS Before the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health was a decade old, prominent health leaders in the U.S. and around the world were declaring victory in the war on infectious diseases. The advent of powerful antibiotics and effective vaccines, they asserted, meant doom for the deadly pathogens that had long consumed so much of public health’s time and efforts. Then in 1981, a UCLA physician reported on the first cases of a deadly immune deficiency syndrome soon to be known as AIDS. In the last two decades, SARS, swine flu, MERS, Ebola, Zika, and others have spread through communities and across borders. And in 2020, COVID19 announced, resoundingly, that if anything, we are more vulnerable than ever to emerging and reemerging infectious disease outbreaks.

Dr. Roger Detels (opposite page, right), FSPH distinguished professor emeritus of epidemiology, joined the school’s faculty in 1971 and served as dean from 1980 to 1985. The year the first cases of AIDS were identified, he launched a cohort study that would become the UCLA site for the ongoing Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS; now called the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study [MWCCS]), which has produced groundbreaking findings in following approximately 2,000 gay and bisexual men since the dawn of the epidemic. Detels has also trained more than 100 epidemiologists who have led HIV/AIDS and other public health efforts in Southeast Asia, China, and elsewhere. Dr. Matthew Mimiaga (opposite page, left), FSPH professor and vice chair of the Department of Epidemiology as well as director of the UCLA Center for LGBTQ+ Advocacy, Research & Health, has worked for over two decades with LGBTQ+ populations and other marginalized groups at the intersection of HIV, substance use, and mental health, both in the U.S. and abroad. Mimiaga, who joined the school’s faculty in 2020, now co-leads the MWCCS with Detels.

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WHAT INSPIRED EACH OF YOU TO GO INTO EPIDEMIOLOGY AT THE TIME YOU CHOSE IT, AND WHAT CONTINUES TO DRIVE YOUR WORK? ROGER DETELS: When I was a medical student doing my rotation in Taiwan, I saw the importance of public health and the impact epidemiology could have on public health and medical problems, versus being with one patient at a time. It’s far more efficient to do something that’s going to affect how we view and solve problems, and what problems we work on.

MATTHEW MIMIAGA: One of my best friends was diagnosed with HIV at the age of 16 in the mid-’90s. I remember going with him to Ward 86 in San Francisco when he initiated

“ WITH THE RAPID SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, IT’S IMPERATIVE FOR GOVERNMENTS TO WORK TOGETHER SO THAT WE CAN BETTER IDENTIFY AND RAPIDLY RESPOND TO PANDEMICS AS A GLOBAL COMMUNITY.” — DR. MATTHEW MIMIAGA

antiretroviral therapy, and seeing firsthand his experience with stigma and the side effects from the medication. That made me want to use epidemiology to most effectively help those living with HIV and to develop ways to prevent it from spreading, particularly in marginalized populations.

AND DR. MIMIAGA, WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO UCLA FIELDING? MM: The school has a long history of notable faculty and excellent work, but most of all for me it was the opportunity to work with Dr. Detels, and to continue to advance his amazing legacy with the MWCCS. RD: What has pleased me most in my career is the number of outstanding people I’ve met who are committed to public health. Working with you, Matthew, has really been great.

WHAT IS IT THAT YOU EACH ADMIRE ABOUT THE OTHER’S PROFESSIONAL APPROACH? RD: The two things I really admire about Matthew are first, his focus on trying to do more to understand, inform, and evaluate interventions on important societal and psychosocial issues — areas that have been understudied in the past — and second, his leadership in the LGBTQ+ community in addressing problems that are unique to that population, as well as to other populations on which he has focused.

MM: Dr. Detels is a legend in public health, particularly in HIV prevention. And what I admire most about him is his humility and the generosity he shows in giving his time and mentorship. When I went to his house for the first time, I saw all of these awards he has received from dignitaries, and just marveled at his humility.

WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE LEGACY OF THE MACS? MM: It’s the world’s longest-running AIDS cohort study and has produced data leading to the most fundamental and influential papers used to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS. The study has collected nearly 3 million biologic specimens since its onset and produced more than 2,000 scientific publications, which is phenomenal.

RD: I started the cohort in 1981, so that’s 42 years that it’s been running, demonstrating that it is possible to follow a population of individuals who will continue to participate if they are committed. Over the course of the four decades we have amassed a repository of over a million specimens from gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, including those living with the virus and those living without the virus. This repository allows us to identify factors associated with a risk of acquiring HIV and to look at factors associated with other disease outcomes in both men who have and have not acquired the virus.

WHAT ARE SOME KEY QUESTIONS THE STUDY CAN ADDRESS GOING FORWARD? MM: There are so many main goals for the study and so many institutions that are now involved. The aspects I’m most excited about are looking at the relationship of multiple psychosocial factors to not only HIV progression,

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Building a Healthier Future Together

but also other factors, such as STIs, cancer, cognitive decline, hospitalization, and mortality in the context of HIV. This study cohort has the largest population of older people living with HIV, which will allow us to answer important questions related to aging and risk of dementia, diabetes, osteoporosis, frailty, and some cancers.

RD: The MACS also represents a unique vehicle for studying emerging infections. Because our cohort had a population that was at risk for both COVID-19 and mpox, we were able to quickly initiate studies when those two diseases were first recognized. And I can assure you, we will have more emerging infectious diseases in the future.

WHAT ABOUT TODAY’S WORLD MAKES US MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO THESE OUTBREAKS, AND HOW CAN WE BE BETTER PREPARED? RD: We’re much more interconnected. With globalization, people travel a lot more than they used to, and thus, many more people are exposed.

MM: In the past, outbreaks could often be contained within a single city or country or region. Now, with the rapid spread of infectious diseases, it’s imperative for governments to work together so that we can better identify and rapidly respond to pandemics as a global community.

WHAT COMPARISONS CAN BE DRAWN BETWEEN HOW HIV/AIDS AND COVID-19 UNFOLDED? RD: The saddest comparison is that both became politicized. They were similar in that both involved significant risk behaviors and significant behavioral interventions, which are always difficult to implement. Both also demonstrated how unprepared we were. But I think the most disturbing outcome, particularly of the COVID-19 pandemic, was that several states made politicians the decision-makers in terms of control of the pandemic, rather than public health professionals. It used to be the public health director who determined the steps that needed to be taken. That’s now fallen to politicians, and I predict disaster.

MM: I agree. Both diseases disproportionately affect marginalized populations — including racial and ethnic minorities, people living in poverty, and people with preexisting health conditions. In the case of HIV, it took several years for effective treatments to develop, and it was initially highly stigmatized, with discrimination against people living with HIV and certain groups that were at risk. Similarly, in the early days of COVID, there was a lack of effective treatments and reports of discrimination against certain groups, such as Asian Americans. As Roger mentioned, the politicization of public health measures such as masking and social distancing undermined public trust and led to misunderstandings, mixed messages, and confusion. In the response to HIV, some politicians and religious groups have opposed prevention measures such as condom distribution, clean needle-exchange programs, and safe injection sites.

One lesson we should have learned from HIV is the importance of addressing social determinants of health in our response to pandemics, such as poverty and inequity, given how they can disproportionately affect marginalized groups.

“ THE SADDEST COMPARISON [BETWEEN HIV/ AIDS AND COVID19] IS THAT BOTH BECAME POLITICIZED. BOTH ALSO DEMONSTRATED HOW UNPREPARED WE WERE.” — DR. ROGER DETELS

IN THE FACE OF ALL THESE CHALLENGES, WHAT MAKES YOU HOPEFUL? MM: Every year, we see an increase in the number of applications to our program at UCLA Fielding, which shows that people want to help advance this field to improve lives around the world. That makes me hopeful.

RD: I second that. Over the last 20 years or so, the Fogarty International Center in particular has funded programs to train public health professionals from lowincome countries and has created situations, as at UCLA, of institution-to-institution support. That is a tremendous resource for global health. As with Matthew, this expanded training of scientists gives me a sense of optimism.

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Investigating a Cancer Disparity

Alleviating the Burden of Dementia

Danica Anukam PhD Student, Epidemiology

Ryo Ikesu PhD Student, Epidemiology

Coming from a family of healthcare providers, I became interested in public health research at an early age. I was especially drawn to cancer epidemiology, because despite all the efforts to eradicate or curtail cancer, it continues to dominate our lives, touching all of us in some way.

My cancer epidemiology research will be centered on the lifestyle factors of African American/Black men who develop prostate cancer, and the extent to which health disparities affect incidence and survival in this population. Research has shown that Black men suffer disproportionately from prostate cancer compared to non-Hispanic White men — a disparity that is larger than for any other cancer. Risk factors for prostate cancer in Black men are neither well-documented nor understood.

I hope my research will offer some clarity on these risk factors, as well as effective interventions for prevention.

My FSPH experience has provided me the resources and knowledge to implement my research interests.

The faculty, staff, and my classmates have made my experience remarkable. My adviser, Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang, chair of the Department of Epidemiology, has provided me with unwavering support and mentorship and has remained a source of inspiration in my pursuit of cancer epidemiology.

As a medical student in Japan, I believed the way for individuals to improve their health was by seeking care at medical facilities. My perspective changed once I began working as a physician and witnessed the influence of social factors on patients’ health. For instance, I encountered a patient who experienced recurring heart failure exacerbations due to low income and subsequent poor nutrition. I also became aware of the significant differences in healthcare services between rural and urban areas. Since then, my goal has been to untangle the impact of social factors and healthcare delivery on people’s health.

Currently, I am conducting research at FSPH focusing on dementia, a condition that is rapidly increasing worldwide due to aging populations, but has no curative treatment. Social factors such as access to education and loneliness have been suggested to affect dementia incidence. Additionally, healthcare services play a crucial role in maintaining the quality of life for people with dementia.

With the invaluable guidance of my mentors and inspiring interactions with peers, I am committed to generating evidence on the relationship between social factors, healthcare services, and dementia. By doing so, I aspire to make meaningful contributions toward alleviating the burden of dementia in society.

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Building a Healthier Future Together

Promoting Perinatal Health

Decolonizing Global Health

Nehaa Khadka PhD ’23, Epidemiology

Sydney Merritt MPH ’23, Epidemiology

My doctoral research at UCLA Fielding focused on evaluating oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) delivery for pregnant and breastfeeding populations in South Africa, driven by my passion for perinatal health and reducing health inequities.

Collaborating closely with Drs. Dvora Joseph Davey and Pamina Gorbach of FSPH’s Department of Epidemiology, I had the opportunity to clean and analyze longitudinal data from the PrEP in Pregnancy and Postpartum (PrEP-PP) cohort study.

Adolescent girls and young women face a disproportionate burden of HIV, with high incidence rates during pregnancy and postpartum in South Africa. Daily oral PrEP is effective in preventing HIV transmission, but its provision for pregnant populations became part of standard care only in 2020, despite being available since 2015. Implementation science studies of PrEP into antenatal and postnatal care have the potential to inform clinical care and national policy decisions regarding HIV prevention for women and infants.

I am continuing my work in perinatal health as a postdoctoral fellow at Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Department of Research & Evaluation, shifting my research focus to the local context. By conducting research within a large integrated healthcare system, my goal is to reduce disparities in care and improve health outcomes for pregnant individuals and their infants in Southern California.

In the summer of 2022, I had the incredible opportunity to live and work in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as part of the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training Program. For an epidemiologist-in-training who happened to speak French, it was an ideal opportunity to work alongside local experts and giants in the field of infectious disease research. The day-to-day experience in Kinshasa was unpredictable — one day we’d be attending a conference on routine immunization access; the next, our office would become ground zero for data management, with handwritten registers of survey participants.

Before joining FSPH, I had a background in microbiology and immunology, with a passion for travel and an ultimate goal to work in global health. After graduation, I am returning to Kinshasa to work with the UCLA-DRC team full time. This work is important to me not only from a scientific perspective, but also through the lens of decolonizing the field of global health. Unlike historical global health work, which was almost exclusively conducted by and for the benefit of visiting researchers, in the UCLA-DRC group we work with and learn from the communities directly impacted by our research. I am beyond excited for this opportunity, and look forward to my future in the field.

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2010s – 2020s After a 2014 Food Summit at UCLA, led by the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA, the Food Studies Graduate Certificate Program was established. Based in UCLA Fielding’s Department of Community Health Sciences but open to all UCLA graduate students, the program draws students from wide-ranging disciplines who address complex topics that include nutrition and public health, food policy and food justice, food cultures, and environmental sustainability. An FSPH-taught course at the jane b semel Healthy Campus Initiative Community Garden combines hands-on gardening lessons with education on urban agriculture’s public health benefits. In 2022, UCLA announced creation of the interdisciplinary Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies, which will house the graduate certificate program.

The increasingly interdisciplinary nature of public health provided the impetus for PH 200A and 200B, a course now taken by all MPH students in their first two quarters at FSPH. Designed by an interdepartmental faculty team, the course presents an introduction to the foundations of 44

public health from an integrated perspective, in which faculty from each of the school’s five departments teach on the same public health issue, and students from each department work together to address them.

On Feb. 10, 2020, at a time of great uncertainty as the U.S. confirmed its 13th case of an individual infected by SARSCoV-2, UCLA Fielding hosted one of the first university events on COVID-19, the symposium “What Do We Know and What’s Next?”

Speakers at the high-profile event included faculty from FSPH, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the UCLA School of Law, and the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, as well as students and community members from across campus and far beyond. Shortly after the event, UCLA leadership called on Dean Ron Brookmeyer to head the newly established campuswide COVID-19 Task Force.

Since the onset of the COVID-19

pandemic, many FSPH faculty have provided critical context to journalists — with more than 16,000 media mentions in 2020 alone — as well as participating in community forums and consulting with government officials and private-sector and nonprofit companies.

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, it was clear that societal inequities resulting from structural racism and other factors would be magnified by the crisis.

In March 2020, FSPH’s Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health, under the leadership of its founding director, Dr. Chandra Ford, UCLA Fielding adjunct professor of community health sciences, formed the COVID-19 Task Force on Racism & Equity. Among other efforts, the interdisciplinary, interinstitutional collaboration held virtual focus groups and analyzed social media data to capture the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities with the pandemic.

By 2012, Dr. Jonathan Fielding had been an active member of the school’s faculty for more than 30 years and was one of the most influential leaders in public health — both in Los Angeles, where he was near the end of a 16-year stint as founding director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, and nationally. On Feb. 16, 2012, Jonathan Fielding and his wife Karin Fielding, a philanthropist and prominent public health advocate, announced that they, along with their sons Andrew and Preston, were establishing a $50 million endowment for the newly renamed UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health. The gift, the largest single donation in the school’s history, will benefit generations of FSPH students and faculty. “Karin and I think of our financial contribution less as a gift than an investment,” Jonathan Fielding said at a ceremony celebrating the donation. “We fully expect a high rate of return.”

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Established in 2001, the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) has become an indispensable tool for policymakers, researchers, advocates, members of the media, and others. Based in FSPH’s UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, it is the nation’s largest state health survey and a key source for credible and comprehensive data on the health and health needs of Californians as a whole and the state’s many racial and ethnic groups. The value of the survey was reinforced with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when monthly CHIS estimates were issued for questions on COVID-19 treatment, vaccine status, risk reduction behaviors, and personal and financial impacts from the pandemic. To capture the rich diversity of California’s population, CHIS interviews are conducted in six languages: English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese dialect), Vietnamese, Korean, and Tagalog.

assistant professor who also sees patients as a registered nurse, wrote about the experience as a way of educating healthcare professionals about the vaccine, which was about to be rolled out to the population. Choi went on to become a visible media presence, using the platform to communicate accurate and responsible information on the COVID-19 vaccines.

Using data from its California Health Interview Survey, the FSPH-based UCLA Center for Health Policy Research created dashboards to track COVID-19 and various risk factors — including chronic diseases and underlying conditions, insurance status, and food insecurity — organized by California county.

By illuminating COVID-19 occurrences and vulnerabilities, these tools helped to inform health and economic support policies across California communities.

In the early months of COVID-19, restrictions of activities, along with economic and other forms of distress, contributed to behaviors with health implications beyond those directly resulting from the virus, according to a study led by Dr. Liwei Chen, FSPH professor of epidemiology, and Dr. Jian Li, professor of environmental health sciences and epidemiology. Analyzing results from a survey of U.S. adults taken in October 2020, they reported that compared with pre-pandemic habits, exercise time was down 31% while screen time increased 60%, alcohol consumption went up 23%, and cigarette smoking was up 9%.

When Frederick J. Angulo (PhD ’95) retired from a 26-year career at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pfizer Inc. recruited him as a lead epidemiologist, where he supported the company in developing its COVID-19 vaccine. Angulo was part of a Pfizer team providing evidence used to make recommendations on who should get the vaccine, as well as consulting on the scope and choice of the vaccine’s clinical trials.

After volunteering to participate in the Phase 3 clinical trial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Kristen Choi (MS ’18), an FSPH

A major concern in the early rollout of COVID-19 vaccines was to get them into the arms of the most vulnerable groups. A group of FSPH students, faculty, and alums led by Dr. Chelsea Shover (PhD ’18) rallied behind efforts to get often overlooked populations immunized, working closely with federally qualified health centers around L.A. County.

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GENERATING EVIDENCE FOR IMPACT

For more than six decades, faculty, staff, and students at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health have produced research findings that have advanced the health and wellness of populations by contributing evidence-based information leading to more effective and inclusive programs and policies. Today’s challenges are formidable — including the many-layered public health threats associated with climate change; the persistent, structurally driven inequities in health and healthcare; and the specter of future outbreaks and pandemics. UCLA Fielding’s associate dean for research, Dr. James Macinko (opposite page, left), and his predecessor in the role, Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang (opposite page, right), recently discussed some of the strengths that have distinguished FSPH research historically, and how the school is poised for impact in the years ahead.

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WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT UCLA FIELDING’S RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS OVER THE YEARS, WHAT STANDS OUT? JAMES MACINKO: One remarkable aspect, when you look at the school’s contributions over time, is its breadth.

Public health research here at FSPH covers everything from laboratory science and theory development to clinical trials, healthcare financing and delivery, program development, implementation and evaluation, community-engaged practice, and workforce training. Our faculty are actively involved in applying their research to policy and advocacy initiatives — often in collaboration with other FSPH faculty, other experts on UCLA’s campus, and community partners.

ZUO-FENG ZHANG: Another way of looking at UCLA Fielding’s wide-ranging excellence is that we’re in this

“ THERE IS AN ETHOS IN OUR SCHOOL NOT TO CONDUCT RESEARCH IN ISOLATION, BUT TO FOCUS ON DISSEMINATION AND TRANSLATION AS WELL. WE MOBILIZE, AND WE MAKE SIGNIFICANT IMPACT.” — DR. JAMES MACINKO

new era often called “big data,” which requires very strict, rigorous study design and analysis techniques to ensure that we are reaching the right conclusions that can guide evidence-based policy and programs. That’s been a longtime strength of our school. And at the same time, we’re doing on-the-ground work: We have always had strong ties with communities, both locally and internationally, and many of our faculty work closely with community partners to identify research priorities, develop studies, share findings, and implement changes based on the results.

JM: A consistent theme of UCLA Fielding research over the decades has been to partner with minoritized communities in ways that address vulnerabilities while building on strengths. The school also has a history of studying public health issues broadly — looking at multiple levels of the environment, for example, to include factors such as workplace health and safety, how the built environment affects our health by promoting or limiting physical activity, how the local food environment can be associated with obesity risk, and how climate change affects agriculture and, consequently, the price and availability of healthy food.

WHAT ARE SOME INDICATORS OF THE SCHOOL’S RESEARCH SUCCESS? JM: We have had steady growth in extramural funding. For a relatively small school, we do very well in that regard, both compared with other schools at UCLA and compared with other schools of public health nationally. Generally, about half of the funding we receive comes from federal grants, which tend to be highly competitive. But a good portion comes from state and local sources, which are also important — these often are for assessments requested by decision-makers. FSPH has invested in research infrastructure to help our faculty obtain large center and training grants, which help to amplify our work and provide funding for students.

ZZ: It’s also worth noting that our faculty are required to dedicate their time to teaching, mentoring, and service as well as research. Most of the larger schools of public health do not have this expectation. This enhances the students’ research experience. We bring our research into the classroom, and incorporate it in our training and mentoring. It also gives students more opportunities to become involved in the research.

JM: One of the major benefits that comes from our school’s success in obtaining large federal grants is that our researchers are often able to apply for what’s called a diversity supplement — creating additional projects for underrepresented students, which is a way to ensure that the research we’re doing best represents the communities we work with, and enhances the diversity of the public health workforce.

HOW DO FSPH RESEARCHERS MAXIMIZE THE IMPACT OF THEIR WORK? ZZ: A big factor is the collaborative culture at FSPH. People here tend to work with other investigators in the school, but also with investigators in other health sciences

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Building a Healthier Future Together

“ COVID-19 SHOWCASED THE PROBLEM-SOLVING NATURE OF OUR FACULTY, STUDENTS, AND STAFF. SO MANY OF THEM IMMEDIATELY PIVOTED TO ADDRESSING THIS EMERGENCY.” — DR. ZUO-FENG ZHANG

schools and across the UCLA campus. As the nation’s topranked public university, UCLA has such a wide range of expertise, and since public health is a field that has always sought to work across disciplinary boundaries to effect change, we are able to leverage that strength better than most. There is also a determination at FSPH to make sure our research is put into practice. When I was associate dean for research, I saw more and more proposals that involved not just the science, but also the translation of that science to the community, or to support policymaking.

JM: I do think there is an ethos in our school not to conduct research in isolation, but to focus on dissemination and translation as well.

We mobilize, and we make significant impact.

WHAT DO YOU VIEW AS THE BIGGEST GROWTH AREA IN PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH OVER THE NEXT DECADE? JM: Climate change will become the driver for many of the public health challenges we see in the future. We will see greater impacts from wildfires, heat waves, and coastal flooding, all of which may contribute to trends in some chronic and infectious diseases. Transitions to clean energy will challenge our infrastructure and may also pose difficulties for major energy users, such as our healthcare systems.

The continued migration of people from areas hit hardest by

climate change will also drive the need to find better ways to accommodate such climate refugees. Because the climate is complex, dynamic, and changes in relation to multiple factors, it requires big data and complex systems models with teams of scientists, which plays into some of our strengths.

WHAT MAKES YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE ABILITY OF UCLA FIELDING TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER BIG PROBLEMS? ZZ: COVID-19 showcased the problem-solving nature of our faculty, students, and staff. So many of them immediately pivoted to addressing this emergency — assisting in research, consulting on policy, and educating the public, both through the news media and in various community settings.

We have brought in so many outstanding new faculty, which generates a great deal of energy and willingness to tackle new problems. At the same time, we have leadership within the school and the university that is encouraging and supporting that work. All of this leaves me optimistic.

JM: Public health has always been a field motivated by challenging, complex issues. Our faculty are diving in and taking on these big problems the way their predecessors tackled the problems of their time. And while today’s problems seem more complex, we now have more tools and knowledge that we can bring to solving them.

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2020s With the field of healthcare administration experiencing dramatic growth as well as transforming to require new skill sets, UCLA Fielding established the online Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) degree program, which welcomed its initial class in 2021. The first MHA degree offered by the University of California system and FSPH’s first online executive program equips early- and mid-career healthcare professionals with skills in areas such as finance, strategic marketing, quantitative problem solving, and analytics.

Los Angeles appointed its first-ever chief heat officer in 2022 — and it was an FSPH alum, Marta Segura (MPH ’91).

Segura also serves as director of Los Angeles’ Climate Emergency Mobilization Office.

Dr. Honghu Liu, as well as other FSPH faculty, staff, and students, to collect wide-ranging health information designed to obtain answers about the 2015 leak in an underground gas storage facility in Aliso Canyon, located immediately adjacent to a residential community in the northwest San Fernando Valley. The leak led to the largest-known human-caused release of methane in U.S. history.

In an effort to strengthen the public health workforce by providing early exposure and opportunities for students from all backgrounds to pursue public health education and careers, UCLA Fielding has established multiple “pathway” programs.

Under the leadership of Dr. Michael Prelip (MPH ’85), FSPH professor of community health sciences, UCLA Fielding’s network of community partners have collaborated with the school to provide hands-on experiences and mentorship for program participants. Among the programs are FSPH’s UCLA Public Health Scholars Training Program (including the UCLA-Tougaloo Public Health Scholars Training Program), the UCLA Public Health Training Program on Population Health Advocacy, and the California Pathways into Public Health Initiative Fellowship Program. In addition, UCLA Fielding’s Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion hosts an annual summer pre-matriculation program, EDI STEPS, for incoming full-time, firstyear public health students, designed to usher a Successful

In 2022, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health awarded a contract of approximately $21 million to a multidisciplinary UCLA team that includes co-principal investigators Dr. Michael Jerrett and 50

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Transition for Educational excellence and Professional Satisfaction. The program is open to students with diverse backgrounds, including those from underrepresented groups.

In May 2023, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, chaired

by Dr. Carol Mangione, UCLA Fielding professor of health policy and management, released draft recommendations urging all women to get mammography screening every other year starting at age 40. Previously, the task force had recommended women start mammograms at 50, with women ages 40-49 considering getting screened depending on personal risk.

Amid growing appreciation for public health’s central role in addressing society’s most pressing challenges, UCLA Fielding reintroduced the undergraduate public health major starting in spring 2023. UCLA undergraduates can now pursue a BA or a BS in public health. Exposing students to public health before graduate school is expected to help draw a more diverse pool of individuals to the profession, as well as providing students who end up in other professions important knowledge of public health principles such as health equity and disease prevention.

To meet the growing demand for individuals able to thrive in an environment often characterized as “big data,” UCLA Fielding established a new Master of Data Science in Health (MDSH) program through FSPH’s Department of Biostatistics, starting in Fall Quarter 2023. The hybrid program, geared to meet the demands of working professionals

Dr. Ron Brookmeyer, a distinguished professor of biostatistics and member of the UCLA Fielding faculty since 2010, was appointed dean of the school in January 2020 after serving as interim dean since November 2018. An internationally renowned researcher, award-winning teacher and scholar, and elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Brookmeyer earned worldwide recognition for predicting the magnitude of the impending HIV/AIDS epidemic with work beginning in the mid-1980s and, through widely cited studies, calling attention to the looming Alzheimer’s epidemic. As an expert on how statistical tools can address global public health challenges, he has also addressed issues of bio-security, disease surveillance, and health challenges of aging populations.

as well as recent graduates, provides advanced training in data management, data analytics, statistical modeling, machine learning, and big-data computing.

In a series of events throughout 2023 celebrating the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s six-plus decades of achievement, FSPH students, faculty, staff, graduates, and friends have commemorated the school’s historic impact as well as celebrating its current prominence, and the path to building a healthier future together.

In response to a statewide need to rapidly prepare thousands of new contact tracers and case investigators to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, UCLA Fielding joined with UCLA Extension, UC San Francisco, and the California Department of Public Health in April 2020 to build the California Virtual Training Academy (VTA), which trained more than 15,000 public health workers for the state. As the pandemic evolved, VTA pivoted to meeting the needs of local health jurisdictions through additional training and support mechanisms. FSPH’s VTA team also expanded training efforts to other countries, including Armenia and the Andean Parliament, whose member countries include Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru.

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MEETING THE CHALLENGES AHEAD About 40% of U.S. adults were regular smokers in 1961, unrestricted in where they could indulge their habit and undeterred by any surgeon general’s warning. The Environmental Protection Agency didn’t exist yet; in big cities like Los Angeles, smoggy days were the norm, and reference to a changing climate was more likely to indicate storm clouds rolling in than any type of long-term, existential threat. And for biostatisticians whose formulas were too complex to calculate in their heads, the first all-electronic desktop calculator was just hitting the market.

So much has changed since the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health was established, but one constant is the school’s mission to advance public health. In the following conversation, Dr. Ron Brookmeyer (opposite page, left), dean of UCLA Fielding, and Dr. Yifang Zhu (PhD ’03) (opposite page, right), who served as senior associate dean for academic programs from July 2018 through June 2023, reflect on that progress and assess the major challenges confronting the field today — and how the school is poised for additional impact in the years to come.

In his own research, Brookmeyer, a distinguished professor of biostatistics who joined the FSPH faculty in 2010, uses the tools of the statistical, informational, and mathematical sciences to address global public health problems. Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences who came to FSPH for her doctoral studies after graduating from Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1997, studies air pollution, climate change, environmental exposure assessment, and aerosol science and technology.

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WHAT COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU THINK OF SOME OF THE MOST STRIKING CHANGES IN PUBLIC HEALTH OVER THE 60-PLUS YEARS SINCE UCLA FIELDING WAS ESTABLISHED? RON BROOKMEYER: In the 1960s, a lot of experts thought the worst was over with regard to infectious diseases. We already had antibiotics and vaccines, and mortality from infectious diseases had gone down markedly in the past century. Major infectious diseases, most notably HIV/AIDS, would soon emerge. The lesson is we can’t become complacent. Another major shift we’ve seen in the last few decades is toward a broader view of public health. There is greater understanding now that gun violence and racism are public health problems. Similarly, we have a much greater awareness of the importance of social determinants of health, and getting at the root causes of health inequities, than we did in the 1960s.

YIFANG ZHU: I appreciate that historical perspective. I grew up in China, where the concept of public health is less developed. In fact, before I started my training at UCLA Fielding, I thought public health was just about vaccinations. It was only when I came here that I began to appreciate that it was so much more.

Obviously, there are issues that weren’t considered to be public health when the school started, such as climate change, but even with that, we can see this broader perspective Ron spoke of. At first, climate change wasn’t viewed as a public health issue, but as we apply the public health lens, the health impacts are better appreciated by communities and local governments, leading to actions to mitigate them.

Advances in technology have also changed how we address public health issues. With so much electronic data, we have better tools. We’ve also seen a huge movement toward community-based approaches. Public health used to be more centralized — the government telling us what to do, whether it was vaccinations or sanitation measures. Now we view communities as partners in trying to move the needle.

DR. ZHU ALLUDED TO CLIMATE CHANGE AS ONE OF THE CENTRAL ISSUES FOR THE FIELD. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE OTHER PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES THAT ARE GROWING IN IMPORTANCE? RB: In the strategic plan for our school, we identified five thematic pillars that have been guiding our thinking. The

first is infectious diseases. Whether it’s an emerging new pathogen or a reemerging pathogen, we have not seen — I’m afraid to say — the last pandemic. A second pillar, effectively communicating what we know and what we don’t know, is one we’ve been dealing with for as long as the school has been here — and, as we have seen during COVID-19, building trust in science continues to be a challenge. Health equity is a third, huge issue. In Los Angeles, people living 10 miles apart can have a 10-year difference in life expectancy, and we know that whenever there’s a public health crisis, marginalized and vulnerable populations suffer the most.

A fourth is what’s often referred to as big data. We have so much data now compared with 20-30 years ago, be it from mobile devices, electronic sensors, or electronic health records, and with unprecedented computing capabilities we have tremendous opportunities to gain insights from all of that data. But if you look at the experience with COVID-19, it showed us public health data systems are archaic, and there’s a great need to modernize them. And then the fifth major challenge is climate change, as we’ve been discussing.

These are major areas where our school has been, and will continue to be, focused on providing leadership.

YZ: And with all of these issues, there are global aspects as well. Whether it’s a pandemic or climate change, we need international collaboration.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE WAYS IN WHICH UCLA FIELDING IS ENSURING THAT ITS GRADUATES WILL CONTINUE TO BE POSITIONED TO LEAD IN ADDRESSING THESE AND OTHER CHALLENGES? RB: We’re very excited about three new degree programs we have established since 2020. The Master of Data Science in Health, offered through our Department of Biostatistics, is a hybrid program — both online and in person — that prepares recent graduates and professionals to take on major data science issues. The Master of Healthcare Administration, our first fully online program, which is offered through our Department of Health Policy and Management, prepares students for leadership roles in the gamut of healthcare administration settings. Students in the program acquire both the business know-how and the public health expertise that better enables them to promote population health and health equity. And then our new degree

“ AS COVID-19 REAFFIRMED, WE NEED LEADERS IN ALL SECTORS LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN ADDRESSING ISSUES THAT IMPACT THE HEALTH OF POPULATIONS.” — DR. RON BROOKMEYER

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Building a Healthier Future Together

“ OUR SCHOOL IS STRONGLY COMMITTED TO ADVANCING HEALTH EQUITY THROUGH RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT.” — DR. YIFANG ZHU

program for undergraduates, leading to either a BA or a BS in public health, will not only help to bolster and diversify the public health workforce, but will also ensure that people going into other professions — whether it’s business, public policy, law, medicine, nursing, dentistry, or anything else — have a public health mindset. As COVID-19 reaffirmed, we need leaders in all sectors looking through the lens of public health in addressing issues that impact the health of populations.

We have also brought in an incredible group of early-career faculty. They are energetic, talented, engaged, and addressing these critical issues through collaboration.

With these big problems, you need multidisciplinary teams of experts, and our faculty recognize the importance of that.

YZ: More broadly, our school contributes by nurturing the next generation of public health scholars, researchers, practitioners, and advocates for the community. We can be proud that, compared with other leading public health schools, we have a diverse student body and faculty. Our school is strongly committed to advancing health equity through research and community engagement. And because we’re in Los Angeles, we have many fruitful partnerships with government agencies such as the L.A. County Department of Public Health, as well as with community-based organizations and nonprofits, all of which allow us to work more collaboratively with diverse public health stakeholders.

WHAT DID YOU KNOW OF THE SCHOOL WHEN YOU WERE BEING RECRUITED? WHAT STOOD OUT FROM THE OUTSIDE, AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN ONLY AFTER YOU GOT HERE? RB: A big part of the draw for me was the location.

When you think about schools of public health in a large, diverse city, on a compact campus in an environment that

encourages collaboration, it’s hard to find any place that’s comparable. As far as what I knew about the school, when I was a graduate student studying statistics, I took an elective course in biostatistics. The textbook was called “Survival Distributions,” coauthored by Virginia Clark, a professor at UCLA. Biostatistics at UCLA has a long tradition of leadership, and I was proud to be joining that department.

YZ: I have a similar story. For my master’s, I was studying airborne particles. We used a textbook called “Aerosol Technology,” and the author was Bill Hinds at FSPH. It was the bible for the aerosol field. So when I started applying to doctoral programs, I knew studying with him was my first choice. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to join his lab and do my PhD with him, and then to become his co-author on the latest edition of that book.

As an environmental engineering person, I had never thought much about the health implications of pollutants in the air. Then we did research that, along with the research of others, led to policies prohibiting new schools from being built within a certain distance of a major freeway.

I began to learn about environmental justice — who was generating the pollutants, who was bearing the burdens — and I knew this was how I wanted to make a difference.

COVID-19 WAS SUCH A HUGE MOMENT FOR THE FIELD. DR. BROOKMEYER, YOU TALKED ABOUT HOW IT WAS A REMINDER THAT WE NEED TO BE BETTER PREPARED FOR THE INEVITABLE FUTURE OUTBREAKS, AND HOW PUBLIC HEALTH CRISES SUCH AS COVID-19 MAGNIFY EXISTING INEQUITIES. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE OTHER LESSONS TO BE DRAWN? RB: Certainly the importance of public health leadership, and building trust. Science matters. Data matters.

COVID-19 demonstrated the importance of providing support for public health at all times, and not just waiting for an emergency. We can’t just wait for the next crisis. We have to rebuild our public health infrastructure now, and advocate for the political will necessary to secure funding.

YZ: At its core, public health is about prevention.

When everything is going well, there are no headlines and we’re not on the public’s radar. That makes it challenging to communicate the need for funding during nonemergencies, but as Ron said, it’s essential that we do.

IN THE FACE OF SO MANY DIFFICULT CHALLENGES, WHAT GIVES YOU A SENSE OF OPTIMISM ABOUT THE ABILITY OF FSPH AND THE FIELD OF PUBLIC HEALTH TO MAKE PROGRESS? RB: For me, that one’s easy — our students.

They’re amazing. They are so passionate about making a difference, and they persevere. Knowing they’re the next generation of leaders makes me optimistic.

YZ: I couldn’t agree more. Interacting with students is the most rewarding part of being an educator. I feel inspired by their passion, their new ideas, their intellectually stimulating questions. Seeing the scientific advances in my field also gets me very excited. With all of the new tools now available, we have exciting opportunities to gain new knowledge that can lead to solving these problems.

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Building a Foundation in Destructive Times Through wars and a global pandemic, Dr. Alina Dorian has worked with government and academic leaders to develop public health capacity in Armenia and Artsakh.

Editor’s note: This article was published in September 2023, just before a full-scale military operation in which Azerbaijan seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as Artsakh), resulting in the forced displacement of the vast majority of the region’s ethnically Armenian population.

Physically in L.A. Mentally in Artsakh Emotionally Broken THE DECLARATION WAS POSTED on social media by someone else, but it perfectly encapsulated how Dr. Alina Dorian felt as the Republic of Artsakh, the predominantly Armenian-populated region also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, suffered through the latest in an ongoing series of traumatic events. These events, including a war and a blockade, have challenged the efforts of leaders like Dorian who have sought to bolster the public health system of the disputed region — particularly following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dorian, associate dean for public health practice and associate professor of community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, is the daughter of Armenian immigrants and granddaughter of survivors of the Armenian genocide. She’s spent nearly three decades collaborating on public health training and programming with government and academic leaders in Armenia and in Artsakh, a conflict zone that declared its independence from Azerbaijan but has not been internationally recognized.

The relationship dates back to the mid-1990s. As a PhD student, Dorian authored Artsakh’s first national health plan. She led the first large-scale national survey to assess demographic and health needs in the region following a cease-fire in the six-year war that started in 1988. In the years that followed, Dorian was awarded back-to-back grants by the United States Agency for International Development to implement primary healthcare programs in Artsakh through the American Red Cross, International Committee of the Red Cross, and American University of Armenia.

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DR. ALINA DORIAN

IN 2021, COLLABORATORS FROM FSPH, THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ARMENIA, AND THE MINISTRIES OF HEALTH IN ARMENIA AND ARTSAKH USED THE ABOVE BILLBOARD TO PROMOTE COVID-19 VACCINES. TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH: MILLIONS OF INDIVIDUALS HAVE BEEN VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19 AROUND THE WORLD. BE SAFE, GET VACCINATED. THE WORLD’S LEADING SCIENTISTS HAVE COMBINED THEIR EFFORTS TO CREATE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE VACCINES.

In March 2020, Dorian and FSPH faculty colleagues Dr. Michael Prelip (MPH ’85) and Dr. Shira Shafir (PhD ’06) began providing technical assistance to the ministries of health in Armenia and Artsakh aiming to limit the spread of COVID-19, including working with the American University of Armenia to establish the National Case Investigation and Contact Tracing Program for Armenia. Those efforts were severely hampered by the eruption of a full-scale war in September 2020 in Artsakh — during which Azerbaijan used sophisticated weaponry and subsequently imposed a blockade of the only road in and out of Artsakh, beginning in December 2022 and continuing well into 2023. In April, with the blockade well into its fifth month, Dorian was preparing to meet, virtually, with the leadership of Artsakh’s Ministry of Health to discuss data her

team had collected as part of the first and largest demographic and health survey conducted in Artsakh since the 2020 war. “It’s hard to plan when you don’t know what the political reality of the region will be in the near future,” Dorian says. “But I have no choice but to be hopeful. In my work I have been surrounded by mothers who have lost their children, and they say, ‘They died so we can live here — in this place — where we have lived for centuries….’ If they’re not going to give up, no one else can.”

The program Dorian helped establish in Armenia in response to COVID-19 included trainings and workforce development in contact tracing and case investigation, not unlike work led in California by Dorian, Prelip, and colleagues at UCLA Extension, UC San Francisco, and the California Department of Public Health through the Virtual

Training Academy. In addition to creating a cadre of trained public health professionals, the effort involved building an emergency call center for the National Center for Disease Control. Dorian’s group also helped to develop messaging on the importance of wearing masks and vaccinations.

When Artsakh was attacked by Azerbaijan a few months later, the effort became “less about COVID-19 and more about getting critical things done under extreme conditions,” Dorian says. Initially, COVID testing was administered in bunkers, often devoid of electricity. Ultimately, the vast majority of the Artsakh population fled into Armenia. Hospital beds were overrun not just by COVID cases but by victims of trauma from the war. In response, UCLA’s Operation Armenia — under the leadership of Dorian, Dr. Eric Esrailian (MPH ’05), 2 02 3 – 2 024

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ABOVE LEFT: DR. ALINA DORIAN (FAR RIGHT IN THE PHOTO) SERVED AS PROJECT MANAGER FOR THE PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARMINE PAGOUMIAN POLYCLINIC AND ANNA AND HIRAIR HOVNANIAN DIAGNOSTIC CENTER IN 2001, THE FIRST AND ONLY FULL-CARE OUTPATIENT MEDICAL CENTER IN THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH. RIGHT: MEMBERS OF VARIOUS MINISTRIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA COMPLETING A TRAINING DORIAN LED ON EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS IN 2022.

and Dr. Shant Shekherdimian (MPH ’09), two additional UCLA faculty leaders who have long assisted in the region — mobilized an effort to provide medical disaster relief and supplies, and to start a home healthcare program to free up hospital bed space.

The attack was one of many developments that posed substantial challenges to COVID-19 public health messaging efforts. “During a time of war and loss, masking and social distancing were not the priorities,” Dorian says. “People were out in the streets in large groups protesting — trying to garner international attention for the war. Meanwhile, funerals and church services were happening all over the country in massive waves.

There was a lot of grieving, hugging, and consoling. And with underlying generational trauma, as survivors of genocide, there was more worry around the war and ethnic cleansing — and community — than COVID-19.”

Since then, the Dorian-led work has expanded to encompass a multitude of programs aimed at advancing public health in the republics of Armenia and Artsakh. The Artsakh Public Health Academy, a virtual platform that includes courses taught by UCLA Fielding and American University of 58

“ Anyone who has been there knows this is a magical place with tenacious and bold people.

These are horrendous times, but I’m going to use all of my energy to continue to move programming forward.”

— Dr. Alina Dorian

Armenia faculty, aims to strengthen the public health workforce and build a more resilient system. In collaboration with the World Health Organization, Dorian continues to design and implement programming to improve Armenia’s disaster response infrastructure, policies, protocols, and training. Among the other initiatives under development are a workforce and pathways program to proactively identify, place, and train individuals in both ministries of health.

In recent years, much of Dorian’s work in Armenia and Artsakh has been supported by Esrailian, chief of UCLA’s Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases as well as a major philanthropist whose Promise Armenian Institute was established at UCLA in 2019. “Eric has been critical in mobilizing resources, funds, and people at UCLA, for which

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I’m extremely grateful,” Dorian says.

“I am honored to help Dr. Dorian, her incredible colleagues at the school, and the entire UCLA community with this important work,” Esrailian says.

“Armenia and Artsakh now have a stronger connection to a global public health network — with prolific expertise — thanks to this connection to UCLA.” For all of the hurdles to progress in Armenia and Artsakh, Dorian remains unrelenting in her commitment.

“Anyone who has been there knows this is a magical place with tenacious and bold people,” she says. “These are horrendous times, but I’m going to use all of my energy to continue to move programming forward — and honestly, I get a lot more out of this work than I give. I am inspired every day and I know how blessed and privileged I am to be able to do this work alongside such dedicated, positive, and strong people.”

F I E L D I N G F E AT U R E S

Taming Wildfires’ Far-Reaching Effects With climate change portending a smokier future, FSPH’s Dr. Miriam Marlier works with colleagues to learn about the public health implications and the best ways to address them.

AS CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS KNOW all too well, climate change is making for warmer and drier conditions in the Western U.S., resulting in longer, more active, and more severe wildfire seasons.

The apocalyptic images of forests engulfed in flames and the human toll of lives and property lost tend to draw the most attention, but people who live farther away from the fires are also affected. Dr. Miriam Marlier, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, notes that in high-fire seasons, wildfire smoke can account for up to half of outdoor air pollution — a health threat likely to loom even larger in coming years, amid the continuing climate trends.

“Across the U.S., we have made a lot of progress over the last few decades in cleaning the air,” Marlier says. “One reason wildfires represent a growing concern is that they are contributing significantly to air pollution — not only at the wildland-urban interface, close to where the burning occurs, but in large swaths of the state downwind from the fires.”

Marlier is an environmental scientist who collaborates with experts across disciplines to study climate-related hazards, their impact on public health, and the optimal strategies for addressing them. In her

research, she uses remote sensing and atmospheric modeling to determine where and when fires are occurring, their severity, and the health implications for people who experience the downwind pollution — in some cases, large distances from the fires themselves. Marlier’s modeling simulations serve several purposes: assessing the contributions of wildfire smoke, versus other pollution sources, to overall air pollution; retrospectively quantifying how fires have contributed to pollution and health effects; and allowing her team to make projections based on current and future climate conditions, as well as projecting the impact of mitigation strategies.

Marlier’s focus is on particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) — tiny particles in the air that have been shown by researchers at FSPH and elsewhere to cause significant health effects. “Isolating the wildfire contribution to PM2.5 suggests it might be more toxic than when we look at PM2.5 from all sources combined, which underscores the need for

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AFTER 2020 LABOR DAY FIRES.

more research on this topic,” Marlier says. Her team also seeks to better grasp how wildfire-specific PM2.5 affects health when it interacts with other climate exposures, such as extreme heat.

“It’s important to understand who is most vulnerable to these overlapping exposures — whether it’s people with preexisting conditions, young children, the elderly, pregnant women, or outdoor workers — as well as what ability these populations

“ One reason wildfires represent a growing concern is that they are contributing significantly to air pollution — not only at the wildland-urban interface, close to where the burning occurs, but in large swaths of the state downwind from the fires.”

— Dr. Miriam Marlier

have to adapt, whether it’s through air conditioning, filtered air, or clean-air shelters,” Marlier explains.

In Indonesia, Marlier’s team developed an online decision-support tool designed to project the public health impact of various conservation and development approaches.

She and her colleagues are currently building a similar tool for California. “We are working with epidemiologists and policy experts to better understand what data is needed to quantify these vulnerabilities and support strategies to protect public health,” Marlier says. “This is something we can’t tackle in traditional academic silos, and so it’s exciting to partner with people across FSPH, the university, and other institutions.”

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Leveraging Social Media’s Potential FSPH’s Dr. Philip Massey says public health needs effective strategies to capitalize on the platforms’ power to disseminate information, and to counter the spread of misinformation.

large,” Massey notes. “From other vaccines, they had their networks set up and knew the road map for amplifying their messages, whereas in public health we were initially fumbling around in the dark.”

Massey has long been interested in health communication, and as social media’s popularity soared, he recognized its potency as a public health messaging tool. “Anyone can find a community of people,

on their HPV vaccination.

Massey has developed and tested cancer prevention messages on social media, aiming to educate parents about the HPV vaccine through narrative engagement and storytelling. “By definition, social media is interactive, so it’s important for public health messaging to work alongside authentic and genuine voices of parents and kids to help them amplify their positive stories,” he explains.

“ It’s easy for misinformation to be passed along unknowingly, as well as for disinformation to be spread willfully.”

— Dr. Philip Massey

THE ENORMOUS POWER WIELDED by social media to spread health-related information — for better and for worse — was on full display in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With public health guidance shifting as new data was gathered on SARS-CoV-2, the interactive platforms became outlets for frustration and confusion, notes Dr. Philip Massey (MPH ’09, PhD ’13), associate professor of

community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. And in the absence of clear public health messaging — even messaging 60

explaining that the best evidence typically evolves with additional research — the void was often filled by misinformation, breeding further uncertainty.

“The pandemic showed that federal agencies didn’t have a solid strategy for utilizing social media in a crisis,” says Massey, who studies the implications of social media for public health communications. The advent of COVID-19 vaccines compounded the issue.

“Anti-vaxxers were already thriving on social media, so even though they are a minority, their influence has been disproportionately

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anywhere in the world, for whatever health or social topic they’re interested in,” he says. “That’s very powerful, and often quite positive. But it’s also easy for misinformation to be passed along unknowingly, as well as for disinformation to be spread willfully.”

In his research, Massey has examined patterns and shifts in public opinion about HPV vaccination on Twitter and Instagram, focusing on the types of messages that are shared and the impact and reach of particular content. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that most adolescents receive the two-dose vaccine starting at age 11 or 12, and as early as 9. But, despite the vaccine being considered extremely safe and effective in preventing several cancers, it has a relatively low uptake, with about 60% of adolescents ages 13-17 being up to date

Massey points to examples of health professionals whose posts on vaccines, cancer screenings, and other issues have gone viral because they are strong communicators. Partnering with trusted health leaders can be an effective way to promote desired messages, he notes. At the same time, he says, the field must stay on top of the falsehoods that gain traction, debunking popular misconceptions as well as proactively inoculating against misinformation.

It’s become imperative for public health professionals to strengthen their social media understanding and literacy.

Massey foresees a growing demand for creative, techsavvy individuals capable of anticipating and adapting to new platforms and technologies. “People who are native to this environment know how to use it better than anyone,” he says. “The rest of us are catching up.”

F I E L D I N G F E AT U R E S

FORWARD THINKING An analysis by FSPH’s UCLA Center for Health Policy Research lays out what California needs to do today to ensure that in 100 years, all residents have the opportunity to thrive.

WHAT STEPS CAN CALIFORNIA policymakers and healthcare leaders take today to enhance the prospects for all of the state’s residents to enjoy good health into the next century? One of the most important is to broaden the definition of health to encompass much more than the healthcare system, says Dr. Ninez Ponce (PhD ’98), professor and chair of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, and director of FSPH’s UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR).

“California has made significant strides in insurance coverage, but coverage isn’t enough,” Ponce says.

“We have to think beyond healthcare — working toward ensuring opportunities for livable wages, affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, good schools, and healthy food.”

Ponce’s conclusion comes from a research report released in 2022

by CHPR as part of California 100, a statewide initiative developed by the University of California to inspire a

student Linh Chuong, that worked closely with other UCLA and community-based experts and stakeholders to analyze past policy decisions and societal shifts that have created the current situation, as well as key factors that will influence health and wellness in the state over the next century.

Ponce notes that although insurance isn’t sufficient to ensure health equity, it is an essential component. On that front, three federal policies have proved pivotal in improving access to healthcare: the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997, and the Affordable Care Act in

“ What health and wellness will look like for our great-grandchildren depends on the steps state leaders take now and in the near future.”

— Dr. Ninez Ponce

vision and strategy for California’s next 100 years that is innovative, sustainable, and equitable. The initiative awarded grants to 18 centers and institutes in California to examine future scenarios in 15 priority areas with the potential to shape the state. Ponce led a team of CHPR and other UCLA Fielding researchers, including FSPH doctoral

2010. California has been a leader in extending coverage to groups left out of those policies, including immigrants — approximately one-fourth of the state’s population — regardless of their documentation status, Ponce adds.

But even with these successes, wide disparities remain in health outcomes across socioeconomic groups, racial/

ethnic populations, and regions of the state. The report points to two factors that will be integral to the future health of California’s population. The first is how broadly or narrowly health is defined. “We have to think beyond medicalized health,” Ponce says.

“Health also involves psychosocial wellness, cultural health, happiness, and the ability to thrive. That means providing services for whole-person care, as well as a climate where people feel safe, welcomed, and valued.” Ponce and her coauthors also call for the interoperability of systems — integrating healthcare services with social services such as housing and education.

The report points to California’s role as a bellwether for the nation in advancing innovative paths to achieving health equity for its diverse population. In the report, Ponce lauded state leaders for “the beginning of a shift away from the current sickness system” through recent initiatives on healthy aging and Medi-Cal programs that address social and structural determinants of health.

“If we want to envision an ideal landscape of health for California looking ahead, we have to concentrate on all sectors that affect people’s health and well-being,” Ponce says.

“What health and wellness will look like for our great-grandchildren depends on the steps state leaders take now and in the near future.”

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G R A D UAT E S M A K I N G A D I F F E R E N C E

UCLA Fielding Graduates Building a Healthier Future Around the World In its six-plus decades, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has graduated more than 11,600 students. These FSPH alums currently live or work in 71 countries, using their degrees to build healthier futures in communities around the world. UCLA Fielding has inducted 80 of these individuals into the school’s Hall of Fame. As with so many of the thousands of FSPH graduates, their achievements have been exemplary, their impact felt far and wide. A complete Hall of Fame list appears on page 65. Following are just a few examples, organized into the five thematic areas identified in the school’s most recent strategic plan as being among the issues of profound importance to the field of public health in the coming decade and beyond.

INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND PUBLIC HEALTH In the early months of 2020, the world learned what public health experts have long known: An infectious disease outbreak in any part of the world has the potential to reach every part of the world. For decades, alums trained at FSPH have played critical roles in identifying and quickly responding to infectious disease outbreaks.

Dr. Frederick Angulo (PhD ’95), a medical epidemiologist,

studied biological threats for the U.S. Department of Defense before joining the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where, during his 26 years, he traveled around the world, studying outbreaks that included Ebola in West Africa and cholera in Haiti. Three years ago, he was recruited by Pfizer 62

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as a lead epidemiologist, supporting the company’s vaccine development efforts — including for COVID-19.

“The availability of vaccines for the prevention of many infectious diseases is one of the greatest advances in the field of public health,” Angulo says.

“Most recently, the rapid availability of safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines is a noteworthy public health accomplishment. Despite the demonstrable societal value of vaccination, confidence in vaccines has declined among some populations. The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health provided me with foundational training in epidemiology to conduct observational studies to estimate the effectiveness of specific vaccines, which provide real-world evidence to support science-based discussions about vaccine use.”

Since the earliest days of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic, UCLA Fielding has trained scores of students who have gone on to serve in leadership capacities for HIV/AIDS programs throughout the world. Within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one such graduate, Dr. Myat Razak (MPH ’91, PhD ’95), leads HIV/AIDS-related capacity-building and health systems-strengthening programs globally, in collaboration with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Razak has held technical leadership positions in key institutions such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, Family Health International, and Johns Hopkins University in the U.S., Asia, and Africa. He has authored peer-reviewed manuscripts, reports, and guidelines on HIV/AIDS and capacity building.

COMMUNICATING PUBLIC HEALTH

of the immunization program. He has served as a consultant for the World Health Organization in more than 25 countries in the areas of disease surveillance, eradication strategies, and public information systems, as well as consulting for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Pan American Health Organization, and others.

The stakes in earning trust and crafting public health messages that reach and resonate with intended audiences have never been higher. Effectively delivering the right messages to the right recipients requires an understanding of the revolutionary changes afoot in how people receive and exchange information. For decades, FSPH graduates have successfully communicated accurate, timely, and responsible messaging with considerable impact.

Dr. Paula Diehr (MS ’67, PhD ’70)

Dr. D. Peter Drotman (MPH ’75)

was part of a large international team that was among the last to encounter a case of smallpox, in 1975. Shortly after starting his tenure at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) three years later, he was assigned to investigate the initial cases of what would later be named AIDS. He went on to serve as editor-in-chief of the monthly peer-reviewed journal Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID), which began publication in 1995 as a vital component of CDC’s effort to communicate the threat of emerging infections worldwide. To ensure swift global dissemination of EID’s content, the journal is electronic, open-access, and distributed free of charge — promoting the recognition of new and reemerging infectious diseases around the world while improving the understanding of factors involved in disease emergence, prevention, and elimination.

Emily Feher (MPH ’12) has worked to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of marginalized workers in India, youth living in rural villages of Cameroon, and teens in Mississippi. Feher helped create Teen Health Mississippi, a youth-centered organization that provides high-quality, research-based sexual and reproductive health programs based on the principle that “all teens in Mississippi deserve access to high-quality sex education and youth-friendly healthcare to attain their highest level of health.”

Wendy Arnold (MPH ’82) was an FSPH student when the first cases of AIDS were identified at UCLA. Arnold went on to become founder

and president of the Peer Education Program of Los Angeles (PEP/ LA), which prepares multicultural youth as peer educators in HIV/ AIDS prevention in the U.S. and internationally. Established in 1990, PEP/LA has been particularly active in 13 countries in Africa. “Through community mobilization, the formation of multidisciplinary committees, and individual empowerment strategies — all learned at FSPH — these programs saved lives,” Arnold says. “I cannot thank UCLA Fielding enough for encouraging my outreach in HIV/AIDS prevention through peer education.”

DATA SCIENCE

has also illustrated the impact that can be made through harnessing data to improve health. A professor emeritus of biostatistics and health services at the University of Washington, Diehr is known for her early work using data to develop diagnostic predictions for headache, community-acquired pneumonia, and ankle fracture — with her colleagues, for example, she developed The Diehr Rule to Diagnose Pneumonia in Adults as a guide to clinical decision-making for such patients.

Dr. Stanley Lemeshow (PhD ’76) was a prominent biostatistician

— focusing on statistical modeling of medical data, sampling, health disparities, and cancer prevention — when he became founding dean of The Ohio State University College of Public Health in 2003, serving in that capacity for the next decade. Indeed, FSPH alumni have started programs to train future public health leaders around the world: Dr. Nuntavarn Vichit-Vadakan (MPH ’81, DrPH ’87), for example, was the founding

dean of the Faculty of Public Health and the School of Global Studies at Thammasat University in Thailand.

In the digital age, the explosion of health information provides a treasure trove of invaluable insights that, if properly harnessed, can guide policies, programs, and practices that lead to better health. With its long-standing strength in data science, UCLA Fielding has, through the course of its history, prepared numerous graduates who have gone on to apply their expertise in a host of important ways.

In a career spanning three decades at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Dr. Marc Strassburg (MPH ’75, DrPH ’81) held positions that included director of web informatics, chief epidemiologist, and director 2 02 3 – 2 024

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HEALTH EQUITY Many factors determine our health and longevity, from what we eat and how much we exercise to the genetic hand we were dealt. But at least as important are factors not traditionally associated with health, including the types of jobs and housing available to us, the quality of our education, and the extent to which we face discrimination.

UCLA Fielding has long been a leader in identifying and addressing health inequities, and this commitment is reflected in the work of many of its graduates.

Since 2006, Nancy Ibrahim (MPH ’93) has served as executive director of the nonprofit Esperanza Community Housing, which works collaboratively to strengthen South Los Angeles through long-term, comprehensive community development. Ibrahim developed a model community health leadership program, Promotores de Salud, as well as successful initiatives that have included the Healthy Homes South Los Angeles collaborative, the People Not Pozos environmental justice campaign, and the STAND LA (Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling) coalition.

Dr. Goleen Samari (MPH ’10, PhD ’15) helped to call attention to

the racialization of religious minorities and Islamophobia as a public health issue through her research, as well as in op-eds published in local and national newspapers. An assistant professor at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, Samari looks at how racism, gender inequities, and xenophobia and migration-based inequities shape population health both domestically and globally.

Angela Oh (MPH ’81) was raised in California during an era when certain neighborhoods were not welcoming of her family as immigrants. As the incoming president of the Korean American Bar Association in 1992, Oh became a spokesperson and mediator during the time of social unrest in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers in the beating of Rodney King. Five years later, she was named to the advisory board of President Clinton’s One America 64

Initiative, which developed guidelines for communities to discuss how to address racial and ethnic divisions in mutually productive ways. Oh’s advice to today’s public health graduates pursuing health equity: “Enter the field with an equal measure of humility, compassion, and determination. You are correct in having great doubt about the conditions we face today; you are also right in believing that we can work together to find solutions.”

CLIMATE CHANGE’S IMPACT ON PUBLIC HEALTH The existential threat posed by climate change is already inflicting substantial harms to populations around the world, with disproportionate burdens on vulnerable communities. These effects will only increase in the years ahead.

In addressing the daunting challenge of reducing these impacts, FSPH draws on a long history of improving environmental health through partnerships with communities and policymakers, including the key contributions of alums to the dramatic improvements in the Los Angeles Basin’s air quality since the 1970s.

For nearly two decades, Dr. Barry R. Wallerstein (DEnv ’88) served as executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), the regulatory agency responsible for

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improving air quality for large areas of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

Wallerstein, who took on the role in 1997, oversaw the development and implementation of the nation’s first local-district air toxics control plan and led the implementation of AQMD’s historic Clean Fleet Vehicle rules.

While Wallerstein has worked to clean the air, Dr. Mark Gold (DEnv ’94) has devoted much of his career to “all things wet.” Gold served for three years as California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s deputy secretary for oceans and coastal policy. Prior to that appointment, he was the UCLA associate vice chancellor for environment and sustainability, where he helped create and lead the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge effort. Gold was also president of the environmental group Heal the Bay for 18 years. He is now focused on building climate resilience through integrated water management solutions for the increasingly arid urban California and the West. “The ongoing climate crisis has greatly exacerbated the risks of drought, flood, wildfire, sea level rise, and extreme heat,” Gold says. “Many of these climate stressors pose severe health risks to the public, especially people who live in low-income communities. Public health leaders need to strongly offer adaptation solutions and make it clear that we can’t afford to wait for mitigation to reduce ongoing climate threats.”

UCLA FIELDING HALL OF FAME Eighty UCLA Fielding graduates have been inducted into the Hall of Fame since it was established in 2002. You can read more about them at ph.ucla.edu/alumni, where you also can submit a nomination for future consideration.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES Manal Aboelata, MPH ’01 Ira Alpert, MSPH ’66 Frederick Angulo, PhD ’95 Wendy Arnold, MPH ’82 Stanley Azen, PhD ’69 Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, MPH ’86, PhD ’94 Elaine Batchlor, MPH ’90 Linda Bien, MPH ’79 Robert Black, MPH ’76 Lisa Bohmer, MPH ’94 Diana Bonta, MPH ’75, DrPH ’92 Claire Brindis, MPH ’73 Ralph Brindis, MPH ’72 Doris Browne, MPH ’68 Linda Burhansstipanov, MPH ’72, DrPH ’74 Mario Ricardo Calderon, MPH ’84 Emmett Chase, MPH ’90 Virginia Clark, PhD ’63 Francine Coeytaux, MPH ’82 Ludlow Creary, MPH ’73 Suzanne Dandoy, MPH ’63 Michele Devlin, MPH ’89, DrPH ’95 Paula Diehr, MS ’67, PhD ’70 Sam Downing, MPH ’71 D. Peter Drotman, MPH ’75 Emily Feher, MPH ’12 Ignacio Ferrey, MPH ’04 Betsy Foxman, MS ’80, PhD ’83 Mark Gold, DEnv ’94 Harold Goldstein, MS ’89, DrPH ’97 Raymond Goodman, MPH ’72 Richard Goodman, MPH ’83 Sander Greenland, MPH ’76, DrPH ’78 Kathryn Hall-Trujillo, MPH ’76 Nancy Hessol, MS ’82

Rachel Hornstein, MPH ’13 Nancy Ibrahim, MPH ’93 Kristin Kalla, MPH ’93 Carolyn Katzin, MS ’88 Robert Kim-Farley, MPH ’75 Kenneth Kizer, MPH ’76 James LeDuc, MSPH ’72, PhD ’77 J. Jack Lee, MS ’84, PhD ’89 Stanley Lemeshow, PhD ’76 Rod Lew, MPH ’88 Peter Long, PhD ’08 Neal Lonky, MPH ’97 Nicole Maderas, MPH ’03 Ana Mascareñas, MPH ’15 Angela Oh, MPH ’81 Kavita K. Patel, MS ’05 Ninez Alafriz Ponce, PhD ’98 Michael Prelip, MPH ’85 Myat Razak, MPH ’91, PhD ’95 Jean Richardson, MPH ’71, DrPH ’80 Keith Richman, MPH ’83 Anthony Rodgers, MS ’76 Pauline Rosenau, MPH ’92

Lisa Rubenstein, MS ’81 Goleen Samari, MPH ’10, PhD ’15 Donna Sanders, MPH ’81 Vonthanak Saphonn, MS ’04, PhD ’03 Jessie Sherrod, MPH ’80 Irwin Shorr, MPH ’72 Stephen Shortell, MPH ’68 Eva Smith, MPH ’90 Arthur Southam, MPH ’84 Marc Strassburg, MPH ’75, DrPH ’81 Thinh Toan Vu, MPH ’20 Shiing-Jer Twu, PhD ’91 Nuntavarn Vichit-Vadakan, MPH ’81, DrPH ’87 Paul S. Viviano, MPA-PH ’76 Barry Wallerstein, DEnv ’88 Donna L. Washington, MPH ’95 Fred Wasserman, MPH ’72, DrPH ’76 Billie Weiss, MPH ’81 Kenneth Wells, MPH ’80 Zunyou Wu, MPH ’92, PhD ’95 Antronette Yancey, MPH ’91 Elizabeth Yano, MS ’87, PhD ’96 2 02 3 – 2 024

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TRANSFORMATIVE INVESTMENTS Boosting the Fight to Prevent the Next Pandemic In establishing UCLA Fielding’s fifth endowed chair, longtime FSPH supporter Tom D. Gordon and his wife Edna, along with the Don S. Levin Trust, have amplified the work of a leading expert.

DR. ANNE RIMOIN (LEFT), THE INAUGURAL GORDON-LEVIN ENDOWED CHAIR IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND PUBLIC HEALTH, WITH LONGTIME UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH SUPPORTER TOM D. GORDON.

AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC unfolded, Dr. Anne Rimoin (MPH ’96), a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and director of FSPH’s Center for Global and Immigrant Health, became a steady media presence as a trusted source for evidence-based public health information on issues related to risk and prevention. The integral role taken on by Rimoin, an internationally recognized expert on emerging infections and infectious disease surveillance systems who has been engaged in pandemic preparedness and response work for more than two decades, came as no surprise to Tom D. Gordon, a longtime FSPH supporter who serves on the school’s Board of Advisors.

In early 2020, Rimoin had been a guest speaker at an FSPH board meeting. “She absolutely blew me away with her knowledge and ability to communicate clearly on these complex issues,” Gordon recalls. “And as I got to know her better, I knew it was critical to make sure her work was well supported.”

The Gordon-Levin Endowed Chair in 66

Infectious Diseases and Public Health was established at FSPH in 2021 by a $2 million gift from Gordon; his wife, Edna Gordon, an active philanthropist; and the Don S. Levin Trust. The chair supports the teaching and research activities of a faculty member with expertise in the epidemiology, transmission, and control of infectious diseases, especially emerging pathogens; and the ability to effectively communicate the impact of these diseases on public health.

In January 2023, 75 friends and family of the Gordons and Rimoin, along with members of the FSPH community, gathered at the Fowler Museum at UCLA for a ceremony celebrating the Gordons and Don S. Levin Trust for their vision in establishing the chair, and the appointment of Rimoin as the inaugural chair holder. “My goal was to have an event that would increase awareness and inspire others to support public health, but also to celebrate the great work Dr. Rimoin is doing in these turbulent times,” Gordon says.

The son of Holocaust survivors whose family moved to the U.S. when

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he was 3, Gordon graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics and went on to a career that culminated in his becoming executive vice president of Cedars-Sinai Health System. The endowed chair, the fifth at FSPH and the second established by Tom and Edna Gordon and the Don S. Levin Trust, has helped to shine an even brighter spotlight on the work of Rimoin, who is founding director of the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training Program — based at FSPH and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Rimoin has worked with local collaborators for nearly two decades. As a leading expert on mpox, Rimoin has provided advice to the State of California, the White House, and the World Health Organization following the height of the global mpox outbreak in 2022. She has continued to be featured widely by international, national, and local broadcast, radio, print, and online media outlets throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and mpox outbreak, providing expertise and evidence-based guidance on the latest developments. STAT News recently named her to its 2023 STATUS List, “the ultimate list of leaders in life sciences.”

“While infectious disease outbreaks are inevitable, pandemics are preventable with strong investments in public health systems that allow for the rapid identification and control of new emerging pathogens,” Rimoin says. “I am proud to have worked with incredibly talented colleagues and students at home and abroad on these efforts, and am grateful to Tom and Edna Gordon and the Don S. Levin Trust for the recognition and support that comes with this prestigious chair.”

Endowed chairs are vital to UCLA Fielding’s efforts to attract and retain outstanding faculty. Once established, they provide a dedicated source of funds in perpetuity for the chair holder’s scholarly activities, as well as support for graduate fellowships.

An appointment to an endowed chair represents the highest honor a university can bestow upon a professor.

Building a Healthier Future Together

BUILDING A HEALTHIER FUTURE TOGETHER The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health gratefully acknowledges the following individuals and organizations for making contributions to support research, education, and service during FSPH’s 60th Anniversary Celebration.

This Honor Roll acknowledges gifts and grants of $60 and above made to the school from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. Contributions in every amount are of great importance to the school and are deeply appreciated. UCLA Fielding is also grateful to those who give of their time and talents to enhance the educational experiences of our students.

INDIVIDUALS $100,000 AND ABOVE Anonymous Sallyann and Eugene Fama Monica Salinas Suzanne Schweitzer MPH ’78, Jeremy Schweitzer, Maurice E. Schweitzer, and Theodore U. Schweitzer in memory of Stuart Schweitzer ’61 Gary S. Whitted MPH ’74, PhD ’83 Various Donors

$10,000 - $99,999 Marianne MLS ’93 and Abdelmonem Afifi Diane and Ronald Andersen Jean Balgrosky ’74, MPH ’80, PhD ’15 and Parker Hinshaw Devra Breslow Robin Fox and Ron Brookmeyer Linda Burnes Bolton MN ’72, MPH ’76, DrPH ’88 Carol and Russell Faucett Julie Waxman and Seth Freeman MPH ’19 Deborah and Chris Glik Don S. Levin Trust and Edna and Tom Gordon ’71

Burt I. Harris Jr. Barbara ’77 and Kenneth Kubarych Karen S. L. Lee MPH ’03 Lori MPH ’96, PhD ’02 and Daniel Pelliccioni Karen ’74 and Lawrence Platt Shane S. Que Hee Lawrence S. Rubenstein ’68, MS ’70, MPH ’72, PhD ’75 Deborah Levy ’80, MPH ’83 and Bert Russo Peter W. Shapiro Shirley ’59 and Ralph Shapiro ’53, JD ’58 Patricia and Richard Sinaiko MPH ’77 Cornelia Daly ’77, MD ’83 and Arthur Southam MD ’83, MPH ’84 Julia Strickland JD ’78 and Timothy Wahl Leslie Vermut and Thomas Weinberger Melissa and Mark Zatzkis

$1,000 - $9,999 Grace and Craig Acosta MBA ’88, MPH ’89 Unna and Harry Albers Ira Alpert MSPH ’66 Ruth M. Arevalo MPH ’88 Wendy Arnold MPH ’82

Sandra MPH ’88 and Charles Aronberg ’50 Roshan and Sharok Bastani Noushin Bayat MPH ’96 David C. Bohnett Diana Bontá MPH ’75, DrPH ’92 and Frank Matricardi MPH ’72, DrPH ’82 Bernadette and James Brown MPH ’95 Doris Browne MPH ’68 Barbara MSPH ’73 and Kelly Chan MBA ’69 Karen and Sanford Decker Zhaoping Li and Kenny Deng MPH ’96 Mimi and Roger Detels Ernest A. Diaz ’88, MPH ’92 Daryl Dichek MPH ’87 and Ken Smith Paula Diehr MS ’67, PhD ’70 and Frank Hughes Lorraine and Gerald Factor Jonathan E. Freedman ’86, MS ’91 Rita Flynn and Ralph Frerichs Patricia MD ’73 and Tomas Ganz ’70, MD ’78 Dean Hansell and Eric Kugler Lauren A. Harrell MS ’11, PhD ’15 Alice Holzman and Charles Briggs Fannie Huang ’01, MS ’06 and Michael Mori ’01 Christina and John Ivie MPH ’80 2 02 3 – 2 024

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T R A N S FO R M AT I V E I N V E S T M E N T S

Joan Guilford and Richard Jackson Brennan and Fitzgerald James Katherine Jew MPH ’88 Rachael M. Jones Grace Kim Crofton MPH ’93 Masao Koketsu ’60 Barbara Komas MPH ’79, MD ’86 and Gary Sloan MPH ’78 Elizabeth Sloss MPH ’77, PhD ’83 and James Korelitz ’74, MS ’75, PhD ’84 Vei-Vei ’82, MS ’84 and J. Jack Lee MS ’84, PhD ’89 Rebecka MPH ’95 and Steven Levan Amy and Richard Lipeles MPH ’79 Heather L. Long MPH ’03 Charis and Greggory Mansur MPH ’99 Dionne C. Miller MPH ’09 Zahra Movaghar ’75, MPH ’78 Carrie Odell and Simon T. Anne MD ’80 and Daniel Ovadia ’74, MD ’80, MPH ’16 Susan ’77, DDS ’81, MPH ’16 and Jeffrey Ploussard Sujatha Ramesh and Ramesh Raghavan PhD ’03 Kenneth J. Resser ’72, MS ’86 Elizabeth Rohr MSN ’15 H. Jeffrey Rostami MS ’75, PhD ’77 Shing and Mark Schluchter MS ’79, PhD ’82 Lauren ’80 and Jeffrey Segal Atsuko Shibata MPH ’90, PhD ’95 and Tajima Homma Trudy Sonia Stella and Guy Soohoo MPH ’85 Donna J. Tesi MPH ’84 Hiroshi Tsuji Rini and Gustavo Valdespino MPH ’83 Sophia Guel-Valenzuela MPH ’94 and Abel Valenzuela Jr. Naomi Rosen ’70, MPH ’73 and Bryan Weare Joanne and Kenneth Weinman MPH ’99

$500 - $999 Matthew S. Berry ’81, MS ’83 Jeff Bianco Chandra Broadwater MPH ’14 and David Leonard Karen MN ’85 and Gregory Brody ’75, MBA ’77, MPH ’77 George M. Buckley III MBA ’16, MPH ’16 Margaret Lee ’89, MD ’93 and Donald Chang MPH ’02 Andrew H. Do ’14, MPH ’16 Laura S. Erskine Phyllis and Thomas Farver PhD ’72

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Katherine MPH ’94 and Russell Gottfried Jennifer MPH ’00 and Marc Heenan ’94, MBA ’99 Diana ’71, MS ’88, DrPH ’98 and Joe Hilberman ’70, JD ’73 Ruri and Gordon Honda MS ’81, DrPH ’86 Sally and Joon Lee MPH ’00 Mika and William Meierding ’95 Robin and Fredrick Miller MPH ’73 Margaret Banez Nathason and Niel Nathason MPH ’77 Barbara Berney MPH ’73 and Jack Needleman Kimberly and Michael Ong Lynn ’63, MS ’65 and Neville Ostrick Zhen Qian MS ’04 Katherine Desmond and Thomas Rice Paul J. Rosati MS ’81, MBA ’83 Nahal S. Sabrkhani ’14, MPH ’16 Kristyn L. Sanders MPH ’11 Susan Karlins MPH ’84 and David Sausjord MA ’83 Carissa and Jack Schlosser MPH ’74 Raymond Smith Cynthia Iftner-Traum MPH ’95 and Jeffrey Traum Annie C. Treadway MPH ’15 Ayako Utsumi MPH ’95 May-Choo and Lingtao Wang Yie-Chia and Bao Wang MPH ’78, DrPH ’82 Christina J. Witsberger MPH ’81 Dayle MPH ’74 and Steven Wright Bertina M. Yen MPH ’02 Henna Zaidi MPH ’12, MPP ’12 and Thomas Tran

$60 - $499 Maryalice and Jeffrey Agner MPH ’14 Joyce Page ’69, MSPH ’74 and Jemal Akcha Terry L. Altemus MPH ’94 Jessica Alvarez Barbara L. Arnaelsteen ’61, MPH ’72 Pamela Noble-Ashikaga and Takamaru Ashikaga ’66, MS ’70, PhD ’73 Vicki Baker ’69, MBA ’71 Ann Baker MPH ’92 Joyce Baron MPP ’00 and Joseph Pennella Judy A. Bjorke MPH ’77 Sharna and Stewart Blumenfeld PhD ’73 Krisianna R. Bock MPH ’00 Claire ’72, MPH ’73 and Ralph Brindis MPH ’72 Michelle R. Burton MPH ’90

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Lauri PhD ’88 and Raymond Byerley Matthew J. Cahillane MPH ’88 Sylvia and David Carlisle MPH ’88, PhD ’92 Susan J. Carr MPH ’73 Alexandra Carter Nolinda and Bill Caswell MBA ’82, MPH ’83 Linda MS ’67, PhD ’70 and Kenneth Chan Raymond Chavira MS ’95 Anna MPH ’00 and Visoth Chea Lily and Chris Chen Hwai-Yin Chang and Chengtai Chen MPH ’80 Deborah L. Chiou Steve C. Chiu MPH ’04 Caroline Chou ’15, MS ’20 Joan MPH ’83, DrPH ’89 and Chee Chow Marlene Chuek MS ’99 Ada Y. Clark MPH ’07 Susan Cole ’66 Anne L. Coleman MS ’94, PhD ’97 Erik R. Coll Kristin MPH ’00 and Bryan Cook Garen L. Corbett Anahid MPH ’67, DrPH ’70 and Daniel Crecelius Anne Crowe MPH ’22 Mary A. Cummings MPH ’70, DrPH ’73 Michele Van Hirtum-Das and Aninda Das MPH ’15 Jane ’70 and Thomas David ’70, MA ’72 Kathleen E. Dinsmore MPH ’99 Katrina Y. Eagilen MPH ’22 Ernest T. Espinoza Jr. ’87, MS ’89 Rosalind Essner MPH ’88 and Howard Ross Frances Farhood ’57 Lorena and Thomas Farnham MPH ’96 Brandon G. Fernandez-Comer MPH ’20 Susanne Simpson ’76, MBA ’82 and Sammy Feuerlicht ’76 Stephen Fillebrown Martha and Jeffery Flocken MPH ’78 Arlene ’65, MPH ’67 and L. Schuyler Fonaroff Deborah A. Freund Laurie Friedman Aia Leed Ap ’81 and Eric Zimmerman MPH ’86 Howard Friedrich ’64 Ana MPH ’84 and Edwin Friendly III Paulina Avendano and Paul Fu Jr. MPH ’99 Judith Katzburg MPH ’97, PhD ’02 and Stuart Gabriel Gayle Penrod and Michael Galper MPH ’94

Building a Healthier Future Together

Chhandasi Bagchi MPH ’06 and Anirban Ganguly ’97 Valantine and Dennis Gelyana MPH ’01 Connie and Glenn Gipson Lynn Pettitt MPH ’92 and Michael Gokey Victoria L. Goldfarb JD ’87 Marcia W. Goldgar Caroline MS ’96 and Mark Goldzweig Mark E. Granoff MPH ’79 Susan and Jim Haden MPH ’71 Clinton J. Hall PhD ’18 Ester and Clarence Hall MPH ’69 Ann S. Hamilton PhD ’87 Mary J. Hansell MPH ’83, DrPH ’89 Alysia Harris Nicole MPH ’10 and Noah Haskell ’99, MBA ’09 Sara Haynes MPH ’03 and Michael Scippa Elizabeth and Robert Herrick MS ’80 Nancy DrPH ’00 and Allan Hikoyeda Peggy da Silva ’76 and Dan Hodapp Mary Hofmann Henriques MPH ’00 and Weyron Henriques Maryann and James Hook MPH ’79 Nancy E. Horvath MPH ’75 Margo-Lea Hurwicz MA ’74, PhD ’82 and Jack Ketola ’74, MA ’75 Mary and Joseph Indenbaum MPH ’62 Kiva ’93, MPH ’00 and Gene Iverson Kevin James Pui Yue Hon and Henry Jew Allison Kamerman Marlene ’59 and Josef Kamienny Beth and Avram Kaplan ’71, MPH ’72 Barbara Kar Shan Cretin and Emmett Keeler Kara Keeling Loan PhD ’11 and John Kim Han and Robert Kim-Farley MPH ’75 Rosalyn MPH ’72 and Sterling King Jr. MPH ’71, DrPH ’76 Nancy J. Kingston MPH ’74 Paula MPH ’99 and Matthew Kirchner Jennifer K. Kitzman MPH ’00 Avi Klein ’10 Melodye ’78, MPH ’80 and Leonard Kleinman MPH ’78 Jennifer ’82, MN ’85, MPH ’87 and Frank Kozakowski ’76, MA ’78 David Krasnow MPH ’98 Luis G. Kun ’72, MS ’74, PhD ’78 Ruby M. Kuratomi ’67, MPH ’81 Linda O. Lange MPH ’91, DrPH ’96 Karen Johnson Lassner MA ’75, MPH ’76 and Norberto Lassner ’74, MS ’77 Ang-Lee Lee Amy and Terrence Lee MPH ’90

Barron N. Lee MPH ’98 Jennifer MPH ’22 and Richard Lehmann Chunqing Lin PhD ’09 Miaomiao Liu MS ’05 Susan Lloyd-Anders MPH ’81 and Glenn Anders Leah Maddock Loh MPH ’05, MBA ’19 and Steve Loh ’94 Misha and Sharukh Lokhandwala ’07 Marcus M. Look MPH ’82 Brianna Lotze MPH ’20 Carolyn Mendez-Luck MPH ’96, PhD ’03 and Jeffrey Luck MBA ’86 Wai Fong Lui Chak and Yuk Seung Lui Tamara ’75 and Herbert Lundblad MPH ’77, DENV ’82 Jennifer Malin MD ’92, PhD ’01 and Brooks Ensign Beth Glenn and Abdalla Mallouk ’96 Melissa and Osvaldo Martinez MPH ’03 Melinda Martinez MPH ’22 Denise C. Mathes MPH ’02 Diana MPH ’74 and Yoshihiro Matsushima Jeannette E. May MPH ’89 Monica F. McCann MA ’04, MPH ’04 Rosemary and John McGuire Hannah MPH ’02 and David Moore Lisa M. Moore MPH ’05 Nancy and Chet Mulholland ’72 Nancy A. Murakami ’59 Maureen Neville Chasity Jennings-Nunez and Felix Nunez MPH ’01 Christine K. Oakley MPH ’79 Joseph Oliva Maria J. Ortega MPH ’97 Ruth Mohr MPH ’73 and David Owens Norma Gomez Parra and Ernesto Parra MPH ’90 Dorothy M. Paynes MPH ’73 Mercedes Perez MPH ’04 Denise Perpich MA ’01, MPH ’01 and John Brown PhD ’99 Nico C. Potterat MPH ’05 Michael L. Prelip MPH ’85 Julia Prentice MS ’01, PhD ’04 and Donald Elmore Jr. Veronica Quimpo MPH ’93 Cynthia O. Recio MPH ’05 Sylvia and Ronald Retzer MPH ’73 Luanne Rohrbach MPH ’80 and Thomas Szayna Jane and Sholom Rosen Kerstin and George Royce ’63 Cameron Salehi Leslie and Kenneth Satin MPH ’78, DrPH ’81

Marion and Anthony Schiff MPH ’78 Wendy ’84, MS ’89 and Paul Schiffer Jennifer Scott Powers Karina and Andrew Sefkow ’91, MS ’94 Shira Shafir PhD ’06 and Theodore Kroeber Annette and Larry Sharfstein ’80, MPH ’86 Bharti Sheth MS ’77 Gale F. Shornick PhD ’97 Margery Lackman and Daniel Smith DrPH ’83 John Sohl MS ’80 Denise MPH ’82 and Joseph Spaulding Nicolette ’67 and Ronald Spoltore Kathy and John Stein MPH ’76 Rebecca M. Steinberg MPH ’10 Sylvia and Daniel Stone MPH ’95 Gail and Ira Studin MPH ’84 Carole MPH ’87 and Rafael Suarez Jr. Joshua Bobrowsky MPH ’97, JD ’08 and Daniel Tarica Susan Taylor MPH ’87 Jessica Thies MPH ’22 Genevieve and Citron Toy ’53 Monique Trinh and William Keith Travis Y. Tu ’92, MPH ’95 Kathleen E. Umamoto Lucy Pennington MPH ’88, MBA ’90 and Cristino Viveros Carole and Paul Viviano MPA ’76 Leah Vriesman PhD ’01 and Jonathan Wee Jeanne MPH ’76 and Richard Waite Hazel G. Wallace MPH ’68, DrPH ’72 Linda and Albert Wang MS ’87 Irene Tsai ’99, MPH ’03 and James Wannares MPH ’02 Benedita and Robert Weiss Betty Whitehead ’73, MPH ’75 Manhal and G. Darryl Wieland MPH ’83 Lennie Wong ’79, MS ’80, PhD ’87 and Richard Sposto ’74, MS ’77, PhD ’81 Stephanie A. Wong ’04, MPH ’07 Patty Wong and Robert Dion Christina Wong Connie C. Wong MPH ’09 Constance Fung MD ’98, MS ’03 and Hawkin Woo MPH ’09 Saundra and David Woodly MPH ’74 Christine Z. Yang ’08, MPH ’10 Gina Yap and Michael Newnham Eleanor D. Young ’77, MPH ’84 Maria-Elena D. Young PhD ’18 Stanley C. Yuen ’99, MPH ’02 Jacqueline and Michael Zapf MPH ’72 Rui Zhao and Xi Zhu Yifang Zhu PhD ’03 and Michael Zhang 2 02 3 – 2 024

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T R A N S FO R M AT I V E I N V E S T M E N T S

ORGANIZATIONS $1,000,000 AND MORE Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The California Endowment California Health Care Foundation Conrad N. Hilton Foundation National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

$100,000 - $999,999 Alpha Foundation for the Improvement of Mine Safety and Health Blue Shield of California Research & Education Foundation Breast Cancer Research Foundation The California Wellness Foundation Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Family Values @ Work Action, Inc. Health Effects of Air Pollution Foundation La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology Leadership Conference Education Fund Massachusetts General Hospital The Molina Healthcare Charitable Foundation National Bureau of Economic Research

PATH RAND Corporation Royal Society The Society of Family Planning

The SCAN Foundation SCAN Health Plan UCLA Health

$10,000 - $99,999

Anonymous Centene Management Company LLC Chevron Corporation City of Hope The David Bohnett Foundation Desert Vista Advisors Edison International Foundation Google Indus Management, LLC Kenlindachan Trust Kroger Company Mill River Foundation Nike, Inc. NRG Oncology Partners in Care Foundation PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP PricewaterhouseCoopers Foundation Southern California Edison Spencer Stuart St. Paul the Apostle Church Valley Presbyterian Hospital Visa Inc. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. Venice Family Clinic

The African Network for Health Education Alzheimer’s Association The Amelia Ann Adams Whole Life Center Archstone Foundation California Center for Public Health Advocacy Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Kaiser Permanente Inc. Karen Toffler Charitable Trust Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Metta Fund Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research AltaMed Health Services Corporation Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Institute of International Education L.A. Care Health Plan Preferred IPA of California Providence Health & Services

$60 - $999

It is important to us that we acknowledge your gift properly. Every effort has been made to ensure the completeness and accuracy of this Honor Roll. Please let us know of any omissions or errors by calling (310) 825-6464 or emailing publichealth@support.ucla.edu.

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Building a Healthier Future Together

ENDOWMENTS PROVIDING SUPPORT, IN PERPETUITY, TO UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL Jonathan and Karin Fielding Endowed Fund CENTERS Fred H. Bixby Center on Population and Reproductive Health Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity CHAIRS Fred H. Bixby Chair in Population Policy Fred W. and Pamela K. Wasserman Chair in Health Policy and Management Gordon-Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health

Jonathan and Karin Fielding Presidential Chair in Health Equity Jonathan E. Fielding Chair in Climate Change and Public Health Paul Torrens Chair in Healthcare Management PUBLIC PROGRAMS, RESEARCH, AND PRACTICE Anne Sullivan Reher Livio Fund for the Health and WellBeing of the Homeless Dauer Family Foundation Dean’s Discretionary Fund Dr. E. E. Dowdle Fund Lester Breslow Distinguished Lectureships Linda Rosenstock Global Health Innovation Fund

Monica Salinas Fund for Latino Health The Paul Torrens Health Forum at UCLA Ralph & Shirley Shapiro School of Public Health Endowed Dean’s Discretionary Fund The Ralph R. Sachs Visiting Scholar Endowment Fund Richard D. and Vera F. Weisman Family Endowment for Epidemiology Research Fund UCLA Center for Health Advancement Endowed Fund UCLA Stuart O. Schweitzer Fund for the UCLA Seminar on Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy Vivian Weinstein Endowment Fund

ENDOWED FELLOWSHIPS SUPPORTING GENERATIONS OF PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERS The Abdelmonem A. Afifi Student Fellowship Anakwenze Family Fieldwork Fellowship The Andrew B. Fielding Fellowship in Mental Health The Ann and Phil Heymann Global Fellowship Fund Ann G. Quealy Memorial Fellowship The Atlantic Richfield Company Fellowship Fund Bette & Hans Lorenz Endowment The Beverlee A. Myers Fellowship Carl E. Hopkins Estate Fund Carolbeth Korn Scholar Endowment Catherine Cheshire and Lan Sing Wu Endowment The Celia G. and Joseph G. Blann Fellowship Charles M. Carpenter Memorial Fund E. Richard Brown Social Justice Fellowship Eleanor J. De Benedictis Fellowship Fred H. Bixby Graduate Fellowship Gary S. Whitted Graduate Scholarship Gerald F. Kominski Fellowship Health Policy & Management Alumni Association Fellowship

Health Policy and Management and Community Partner Fellowship Endowment The James and Linda Lippman Fieldwork Fellowship Jean Balgrosky and Parker Hinshaw Fellowship Jody Heymann and Timothy Brewer Centennial Scholars Fellowship to Advance Equality The Jonathan E. and Karin B. Fielding Family Fellowship in Nutrition The Jonathan E. Fielding Fellowship in Health Policy Juneal Marie Smith Fellowship in International Nutrition The Karin B. Fielding Fellowship in Maternal and Child Health Laurie and Bill Benenson Environmental Health Fellowship Lester Breslow Student Fellowship Levin-Gordon Executive MPH Fellowship Levin-Gordon Health Policy and Management Fellowship Maxicare Research Fellows Mimi and Roger Detels Fellowship Monica Salinas Internship in Latino and Latin American Health

Neumann/Drabkin Global Public Health Field Experience Endowment The Preston J. Fielding Fellowship in Environmental Health Raymond D. Goodman Scholarship The Richard and Jean Sanville Fellowship in Global Health Ruth Roemer Health Services Administration Fellowships Sam Downing Fellowship in Health Policy and Management Samuel J. Tibbitts Fellowship The Steve Wallace Fellowship Tony Norton Memorial Fellowship Wilshire Health and Community Services Endowment in Geriatric Medicine A member of the UCLA Fielding Development and Alumni Affairs team would be happy to discuss how your philanthropy can accomplish something meaningful to you and to the school. We invite you to connect with us.

(310) 825-6464 or publichealth@support.ucla.edu 2 02 3 – 2 024

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PLANNED GIVING

FUTURE INVESTMENT After establishing a fellowship for first-generation college graduates pursuing an MPH in health policy, Dr. Gerald F. Kominski will make a bequest through his estate to further his legacy.

OVER THE COURSE OF A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Gerald F. Kominski has been an influential figure in California and nationally on issues related to healthcare reform and access to care through his research, mentorship of students, and work with policymakers to expand insurance coverage. In retirement, Kominski, professor emeritus in UCLA Fielding’s Department of Health Policy and Management and senior fellow at the FSPH-based UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, is making a different kind of impact — one he envisions as even more enduring.

Before formally retiring in 2021, Kominski established the Gerald F. Kominski Health Policy Fellowship,

awarded each year to an entering MPH health policy student who, like Kominski, is a first-generation college graduate. In addition to making his own significant contribution to fund the fellowship, Kominski has raised approximately $73,000 from friends and colleagues spanning every part of his life. “I’ve spent my career working in health policy, and we still have lots of challenges to make our society truly equitable in terms of access to quality healthcare,” he says. “It’s time for a new generation to take up these issues and fights, and I am committed to supporting that next generation of leaders.”

One of Kominski’s first tasks upon retirement was to, with his wife, Laurie Kominski, update their estate plans.

“It had been about 20 years, and obviously, circumstances change,” Kominski says. “Our daughter is now an adult, and we are more financially secure. This provided an opportunity to revisit questions about where we want our assets to go. For us, as for most people, the top priority is family. But after my wonderful career at UCLA, we were fortunate enough to be able to think more broadly and ask, after taking care of family, what else can we do?”

With Kominski having already determined that establishing the fellowship was the best way to honor his legacy and show his gratitude for the fulfilling career he had at UCLA Fielding, DR. GERALD F. KOMINSKI WITH HIS WIFE LAURIE (LEFT) AND THEIR the question was an DAUGHTER JULIE (RIGHT) easy one to answer.

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In their updated estate plan, the Kominskis included a planned gift that will double their initial investment in the Gerald F. Kominski Health Policy Fellowship. “We felt blessed to be able to create the fellowship in 2020,” Kominski says. “But under the best circumstances, we would have made a larger gift; it just wasn’t feasible at that time. As with many people living in Southern California, our greatest asset is the house we own, and sharing a portion of that wealth through estate planning is a way to give more.”

Kominski hopes other FSPH faculty and alums will consider allocating a portion of their assets to the school through their own estate plans.

“Everyone has different personal priorities,” he says. “But by creating the fellowship, promoting it, soliciting from colleagues, and then announcing publicly that we are going to double our initial investment through estate planning, I am modeling behavior that I hope others will follow.”

The desire to provide financial assistance to first-generation college graduates in their pursuit of master’s degrees in health policy stems from Kominski’s life experience. College hadn’t been an option for Kominski’s mother and father, who grew up in poverty and ended their formal education after sixth and ninth grade, respectively, but made considerable sacrifices to ensure their four children could attend college and lead better lives. When Kominski wanted to go to graduate school, his parents could no longer support him financially. A fellowship made the difference, enabling Kominski to earn a PhD in public policy analysis from the University of Pennsylvania and launch his successful career.

“I was able to get a PhD without undertaking a crushing amount of debt, and I know how transformative that can be,” Kominski says. “I could not have possibly dreamed when I was a kid growing up in Baltimore that I would end up at the greatest public university in the country, teaching and helping to create a better world. I’m thrilled to be able to give something back that will continue to support students long after I’m gone.”

UCLA LEGACY SOCIETY

The UCLA Legacy Society honors alumni, faculty, staff, and friends who have chosen to include UCLA in their estate or long-range plans. We gratefully acknowledge the following people whose gifts ultimately will support the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Marsha ’64 * and Ira Alpert MSPH ’66 Joy T. Blevins MPH ’97 Krisianna R. Bock MPH ’00 Devra and Lester * Breslow Marianne and E. Richard * Brown John M. Browning MPH ’94 Maryan G. Bunga MPH ’66 Cathy Cheshire and Lan Wu ’56, MPH ’72 Peggy da Silva ’76 and Dan Hodapp Patricia S. Dillon Sander Greenland MPH ’76, DrPH ’78 Joanne Jubelier ’65 * and James Zidell ’91

Laurie K. and Gerald F. Kominski David Krasnow MPH ’98 Delores MPH ’73 and Ola Olambiwonnu Joyce A. Page ’69, MSPH ’74 and Jemal Akcha Carolyn Parrish and H. Marshall Blann ’57 Lawrence S. Rubenstein MPH ’72, PhD ’75 Sandra O. Saunders MPH ’75 Patricia J. and Richard E. Sinaiko MPH ’77 Kimberley A. Sinclair ’87, MPH ’05 Kathy P. and John D. Stein MPH ’76 Donna MED ’67 and Wendell * Trent MPH ’71 * Deceased

Have you included the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in your estate plan? We would be honored to welcome you to the UCLA Legacy Society and share the benefits of this special group. If you would like to learn more, please contact Devon Brown, Senior Director, UCLA Office of Gift Planning, at (310) 794-2213 or devonb@support.ucla.edu.

LEARN MORE ABOUT LEAVING A LEGACY Your planned gift can ensure faculty excellence and student access for generations to come. Your gift also may provide tax benefits and lifetime income.

Planned gifts include: Bequests Charitable Gift Annuities Charitable Trusts Gifts of Real Estate You can make a substantial contribution to UCLA Fielding through a planned gift while satisfying your financial and philanthropic goals at the same time.

Learn More UCLA has extensive planned giving resources and dedicated staff available to answer your questions. Inquiries are confidential and without obligation. If you would like to learn more, please contact Devon Brown, Senior Director, UCLA Office of Gift Planning at (310) 794-2213 or devonb@support.ucla.edu, or visit legacy.ucla.edu.

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SCHOOL WORK

NEW DEGREE PROGRAMS AT UCLA FIELDING The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has established new degree programs to meet growing demands in the field.

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAM: BACHELOR OF ARTS AND BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN PUBLIC HEALTH AS OF FALL QUARTER 2023, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health offers two undergraduate degrees for students to pursue — a bachelor of arts in public health and a bachelor of science in public health — in addition to continuing the undergraduate minor in public health program.

The bachelor’s degrees, which were designed with key classroom and community experiences in mind, expand opportunities to pursue public health amid increasing interest and understanding of the field’s central role in addressing society’s most pressing challenges — including the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters driven by climate change, and health inequities fueled by factors that include structural racism.

MASTER OF DATA SCIENCE IN HEALTH IN WHAT IS OFTEN REFERRED TO as the era of “big data,” massive amounts of electronically stored data (information sets) on a variety of health-related issues carry insights with the potential to shape policies and practices that improve lives. As these databases become increasingly accessible to public health researchers, administrators, and policymakers, the demand for individuals with the skills to harness new technologies to tap into these treasure troves is soaring in hospitals, universities, research organizations, and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, among others.

To meet the growing demand, UCLA Fielding launched the Master of Data Science in Health degree program for Fall Quarter 2023. The degree program prepares current professionals and recent college graduates for the fast-growing field of using data analytics to improve health outcomes.

CELEBRATING SIX DECADES OF IMPACT practice innovations targeting infectious diseases, climate change’s impact on public health, health equity, big data, and communicating public health.

The UCLA Fielding Student Impact Poster Showcase was also a highlight of the event, featuring research and practice work led by the school’s master’s and doctoral students.

LEFT: FSPH’S INAUGURAL RESEARCH, INNOVATION & IMPACT DAY INCLUDED A STUDENT IMPACT POSTER SHOWCASE. RIGHT: DR. RACHAEL JONES, PROFESSOR AND CHAIR OF FSPH’S DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES, SPOKE ON INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

TO COMMEMORATE THE ACHIEVEMENTS of the school during its first 60 years, UCLA Fielding held Research, Innovation & Impact Day on campus in spring 2023, with more than 200 students, faculty, staff, alums, and 74

friends of the school in attendance.

The event, hosted by Dean Ron Brookmeyer and Associate Dean for Research James Macinko, featured 15 faculty presenters and five faculty moderators showcasing research and

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Immediately following the event, UCLA Fielding hosted the 60th Birthday Celebration, which included toasts by Brookmeyer, Dr. Jonathan Fielding, and Karin Fielding thanking the school’s community members in attendance, as well as acknowledging all UCLA FSPH community members for their dedication and impact during the school’s first six decades.

UCLA AWARDED $21 MILLION CONTRACT TO STUDY HEALTH IMPACTS OF ALISO CANYON GAS LEAK THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY Department of Public Health selected a multidisciplinary UCLA team that includes FSPH experts to conduct the $21 million Aliso Canyon Health Research Study.

The study is evaluating the short- and long-term health impacts of the 2015-16 gas blowout in Aliso Canyon, California, which is considered the largest underground gas storage facility disaster in the history of the United States. The blowout, in the northwest San Fernando Valley, released an estimated 109,000 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere, along with other oil and gas constituents, over a period of nearly four months. An estimated 232,200 residents lived within a 5-mile radius of the facility. Some residents reported experiencing foul odors, oily mists, and a range of health symptoms,

including headaches; nausea; vomiting; nosebleeds; coughing; and irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat during and following the 2015-16 gas blowout.

Co-principal investigators of the study are Dr. Michael Jerrett, FSPH professor of environmental health sciences, and Dr. Honghu Liu, FSPH professor of biostatistics. Additional FSPH-based researchers include health policy and management professor Dr. Nadereh Pourat (MS ’90, PhD ’95), environmental health sciences associate professor Dr. Jesus Araujo, environmental health sciences professor Dr. Wendie Robbins, community health sciences professor Dr. David Eisenman (MS ’02), and air quality and climate change scientist at the UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions, Dr. Diane A. Garcia-Gonzales.

TOP PHOTO: FSPH STAFF ATTENDING THE 2023 UC BLACK ADMINISTRATORS’ COUNCIL CONFERENCE (L. TO R.): ARLECIA POWELL-HALLEY, KAELYN DUKE, BRITTNEY HAWKINS, AND PORCHIA TOUSSAINT.

FSPH STAFF JOIN COLLEAGUES FOR ANNUAL UC BLACK ADMINISTRATORS’ COUNCIL CONFERENCE THE 2023 UC BLACK ADMINISTRATORS’ COUNCIL (UCBAC) Conference, held in February 2023, offered an opportunity for attendees to engage with one another, network, and explore the challenges and possibilities of leadership roles across the University of California (UC) system.

The UCBAC Conference is an annual two-day gathering of Black leaders from across UC campuses and career levels. The 2023 conference featured a keynote address delivered by Dr. Michael V. Drake, UC president; opportunities for attendees to engage and connect; and a variety of concurrent sessions, including one focused on the experiences of Black women in higher education.

AN ESTIMATED 232,200 RESIDENTS LIVED WITHIN A 5-MILE RADIUS OF THE ALISO CANYON, CALIFORNIA, GAS STORAGE FACILITY IN THE NORTHWEST SAN FERNANDO VALLEY. SOME RESIDENTS REPORTED EXPERIENCING FOUL ODORS, OILY MISTS, AND A RANGE OF HEALTH SYMPTOMS FROM THE 2015-16 GAS BLOWOUT.

UCLA Fielding attendees at UCBAC included Arlecia Powell-Halley, director of academic services for FSPH’s Office of Student Services; Porchia Toussaint, assistant director of the school’s MPH for Health Professionals program; Brittney Hawkins, project specialist for the MPH for Health Professionals program and Public Health Scholars Training Program; and Kaelyn Duke, student services advisor for the Office of Student Services.

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CALIFORNIA SURGEON GENERAL DIANA RAMOS (MPH ‘04) DELIVERS 2023 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS THE UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL of Public Health celebrated 318 graduating students at the June 2023 Commencement ceremony held on campus in Royce Hall.

Dr. Diana Ramos (MPH ’04), California’s surgeon general, delivered the commencement address and spoke to the graduating class about her personal and professional path to public health. “Passion, pay it forward, and personal health: My hope is that you channel these three P’s in public health leadership and make the world a better place,” Ramos said.

Degrees were conferred by Dr. Ron Brookmeyer, dean of UCLA Fielding and a distinguished professor of biostatistics. In attendance to celebrate the 279 graduating MPH, MS, and MHA students, and the 39 PhD students, were family members, partners, friends, faculty, staff, students, and alums.

WELCOMING NEW FACULTY Dr. Jun Chu, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Deborah Freund, adjunct professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Sean DarlingHammond, assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences and the Department of Biostatistics.

Dr. Dana Rose Garfin, assistant professor-in-residence in the Department of Community Health Sciences.

Dr. Brenda Freshman, adjunct professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

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Dr. Michele Guindani, professor in the Department of Biostatistics.

Dr. Olivia Jung, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Srikanth Kadiyala, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Dhruv Khurana, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Gilbert C. Gee was appointed chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences. Dr. Michael Prelip (MPH ’85) previously served as chair.

Janae Hubbard has been promoted to assistant dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Dr. Julienne Jose-Chen joined FSPH as assistant dean for student services.

Dr. Z. John Lu, adjunct associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

LEADERSHIP UPDATES

Dr. Philip Massey (MPH ’09, PhD ’13), associate professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences.

Dr. Sudipto Banerjee is UCLA Fielding’s new senior associate dean for academic programs. Banerjee, professor and former chair of the Department of Biostatistics, succeeds Dr. Yifang Zhu (PhD ’03), who held the role for five years and has returned full time to teaching and research in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences.

Dr. Lindsay Williams, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Naomi Zewde, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Jin Zhou, associate professor-in-residence in the Department of Biostatistics.

Carla Denly was promoted to associate dean for marketing and communications.

Dr. Rachael Jones joined UCLA Fielding as professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. Jones most recently was a faculty member in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Utah’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, and directed both the Industrial Hygiene Program and the Utah Center for Promotion of Work Equity Research, a NIOSH Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health. Dr. Shane Que Hee previously served as chair of the department.

Allison Kamerman was appointed associate dean for finance and administration. The role was previously held by Kathleen Kiser, who retired.

Kyle McJunkin was promoted to assistant dean for academic programs.

Dr. Ninez Ponce (PhD ’98) was named chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management.

Dr. Jack Needleman previously served in the role.

Jennifer Powers was named assistant dean for development and alumni affairs.

Dr. Damla Senturk succeeds Dr. Sudipto Banerjee as chair of the Department of Biostatistics.

Dr. Courtney Thomas Tobin is the new associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion. The role was previously held by Dr. Alina Dorian, who continues in her role as associate dean for public health practice.

Dr. May Wang was elected chair of UCLA Fielding’s Faculty Executive Committee, a position previously held

by Dr. Catherine Sugar.

Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang was named chair of the Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Karin Michels previously served in the role.

Dr. Cathy Lang (MPH ’99, PhD ’07) has been promoted to assistant dean for research.

Dr. James Macinko was named associate dean for research. Dr. ZuoFeng Zhang previously served in the role.

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FACULTY HONORS & SERVICE Four UCLA Fielding School of Public Health scholars were listed among the Highly Cited Researchers list, compiled annually by analytics firm Clarivate: Dr. Sander Greenland (MS ’76, PhD ’78), Dr. Michael Jerrett, Dr. Carol Mangione, and Dr. Marc Suchard.

Dr. Kristen Choi (MS ’18) received a fellowship from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators, managed by the UC Davis Nursing School. Her fellowship project focuses on mental healthcare for LGBTQ youth.

Dr. Anne Coleman (MS ’94, PhD ’97) was named executive medical director and chair of the department of ophthalmology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She began service as director of the UCLA Stein Eye Institute and affiliation chair of the Doheny Eye Institute.

Dr. Catherine Crespi (MS ’91, PhD ’04) was elected to the executive board of the International Biometric Society for the term 2023-26.

Dr. Roger Detels received UCLA’s 2021-22 Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award for outstanding research, teaching, and service.

Dr. Daniel Eisenberg served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Mentorship, Well-being, and Professional Development. He was a featured speaker at the 78

Nobel Conference on “Mental Health (In)Equity and Young People.”

Dr. Julie Elginer (DrPH ’11) was awarded the 2022 City of Calabasas Carl Gibbs Environmental Excellence Award.

Dr. Patricia Ganz received the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship’s Ellen L. Stovall Award for Innovation in Patient-Centered Cancer Care and the AACR-American Cancer Society Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention. She was elected to the Association of American Physicians for 2023.

Dr. Kimberly Gregory received the Luella Klein Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Dr. Michele Guindani was named 2024 chair-elect for the American Statistical Association’s Statistics in Imaging Section.

Dr. Ron D. Hays received the 2022 Health Assessment Lab/Medical Outcomes Trust Career Achievement Award.

Dr. Felicia Hodge was inducted into the inaugural cohort of the UCLA Faculty Mentoring Honor Society.

Dr. Dana Rose Garfin received the Early Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medical Research.

Garfin received a 2023-24 Faculty Career Development Award from the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.

Dr. Andrew Holbrook received the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award for his work building statistical models for the global spread of viruses.

Holbrook also earned the Toffler Scholar Award in 2023.

Dr. Gilbert C. Gee was among experts listed in the 2023 Ranking of Best Scientists in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities by the website Research.com and was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Service Award by the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Among his other honors, he was a 2022 co-author and organizer of the National Academies of Medicine Report on Structural Racism and a 2022 executive committee member of the Environmental Protection Agency Board of Scientific Counselors.

Dr. Richard Jackson received the California Department of Public Health’s Beverlee A. Myers Award for Excellence in Public Health. He served as a senior reviewer of United States Government National Climate Assessment Number 5. He received the David Rall Medal from the National Academy of Medicine for his work as a leader in environmental health.

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Dr. Jian Li served as co-chair for cardiovascular disease on the U.S. National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Cancer, Reproductive, Cardiovascular and Other Chronic Disease Prevention Cross-Sector Council. He was vice chair of the International

Commission on Occupational Health Scientific Committee on Cardiology in Occupational Health, and a member of the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on Occupational Burden of Disease Estimation.

Dr. Jingyi (Jessica) Li received the 2023 Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies Emerging Leader Award, and the 2023 Overton Prize from the International Society for Computational Biology.

Dr. Roch Nianogo (MPH ’13, PhD ’17) was a 2022 recipient of the Karen Toffler Charitable Trust’s Toffler Scholar Award for his ongoing research into preventing Alzheimer’s disease in vulnerable populations.

Dr. Michael Ong was appointed associate chief of staff for research and development at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

Dr. Ninez Ponce (PhD ’98) was named a 2023 Women’s History Month honoree by Catalyst California for being “a trailblazer in health policy and management.” She participated in the 2022-23 White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders as a Data Disaggregation Subcommittee member. She also served as a 2023 editorial board member for the journal Health Affairs Scholar, and as associate editor of DEI for JAMA Health Forum.

Dr. Michael Prelip (MPH ’85) served as chair of the Danone International Prize for Alimentation Selection Committee.

BOOKSHELF Dr. Anne Rimoin (MPH ’96) was named to STAT News’ 2023 STATUS List, “the ultimate list of leaders in life sciences.”

Rimoin was appointed to the World Health Organization’s 2022 Mpox (Monkeypox) Panel.

Dr. Kirsten Schwarz was named to the National Science Foundation’s Ecosystem Science Cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology.

Dr. Catherine Sugar was named chair of the UCLA Undergraduate Council.

Dr. Stephanie Taylor received the Veterans Affairs’ Research Career Scientist Award.

Dr. Courtney Thomas Tobin served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Managed Retreat in the U.S. Gulf Coast Region.

Dr. Jane Valentine served as a reviewer of proposal submissions for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, and for the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 2024 annual meeting panel presentations.

Dr. Steven P. Wallace, late professor of community health sciences, was honored by the Journal of Aging and Health with a special edition as a tribute to his leadership and work in the field of minority aging research.

Dr. Elizabeth Yano was honored with the Under Secretary Award from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Recent books and chapters by UCLA Fielding faculty Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 43

Chapter: Beverages and Health in Reference Module in Food Science, Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition, 4th Edition

Edited by Jonathan E. Fielding

Chapter: HealthRelated Quality of Life Measurement in Public Health

By Liwei Chen

By Robert M. Kaplan and Ron D. Hays

Chapter: Restorative Practices in Schools in Handbook of Classroom Management

Chapter: Methamphetamine Use Among Sexual Minority Men: Epidemiology, Consequences of Use, and Treatment Approaches in Handbook of Substance Misuse and Addictions

By Sean Darling-Hammond and Trevor Fronius

Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 44 Edited by Jonathan E. Fielding

By William Lodge II, Katie Biello, Pablo K. Valente, and Matthew J. Mimiaga

Chapter: The Urgency of Addressing Climate Change

By Jonathan E. Fielding, Ross C. Brownson, and Lawrence W. Green

Biological Monitoring: A Practical Field Manual, 2nd Edition Edited by Lee Blum, Kim Diep, and Shane Que Hee

Equality Within Our Lifetimes

By Jody Heymann, Aleta Sprague, and Amy Raub

STAY CONNECTED WITH UCLA FSPH

SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter and magazine: ph.ucla.edu/subscriptions

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GRANTS & CONTRACTS This section includes new grants and contracts awarded between July 1, 2021, and June 15, 2023. Due to space limitations, only funds of $50,000 or more are listed, by principal investigator.

The JPB Foundation & Harvard University, $227,677 for two years Measuring Progress Towards Improving Environmental Conditions in Disadvantaged Communities California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, $183,324 Toxic Substances in the Environment – Project 1 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences & University of California, Berkeley, $247,242 for five years

ROGER DETELS GABINO ABARCA AND HIRAM BELTRAN-SANCHEZ Health Policy Research Scholars Cohort Five – 2021 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $93,000 for four years

ONYEBUCHI ARAH

Uptake, Safety and Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines During Pregnancy National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases & University of San Francisco, $135,627 for three years

SUSAN BABEY

Center for Health Policy Research – Utilizing Research Studies The California Endowment, $500,000 for two years The Impact of CalFresh Expansion on Food Insecurity and Performance Among Higher Education Students Educational Credit Management Corporation Foundation, $300,000 for one-and-a-half years

SUDIPTO BANERJEE

Bayesian Modeling and Inference for High-Dimensional Disease Mapping and Boundary Detection National Institute of General Medical Sciences, $1,174,624 for four years Probabilistic Multiscale Modeling of the Tumor Microenvironment National Cancer Institute & Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, $414,781 for five years

EMMELINE CHUANG

Qualitative Research, Project Management and Statistical Analysis Master Agreement (MA) 4 – Task Order 1 Department of Veterans Affairs, $428,524

BURTON COWGILL

Adapting Project Towards No Nicotine for Virtual Delivery in Ethnically Diverse Afterschool Settings UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, $1,233,121 for three years

LARA CUSHING

The Environmental Health Fellows Program for Urban Health

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CHINA-US Advanced Public Health Talents Training Program Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CHINA), $215,108

ALINA DORIAN

Collaborating With RWJF’s Transforming Academia for Equity Initiative as a Partner Academic Institution – University of California, Los Angeles Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $300,000 for one-and-a-half years

ALINA DORIAN AND MICHAEL PRELIP

Pandemic Workforce Training Academy for California – FEMA/COVID (Virtual Training Academy [VTA] Plus) California Department of Public Health & University of California, San Francisco, $1,666,184 for two years Pandemic Workforce Training Academy for California – FEMA/ COVID (VTA) (Reserve Corps) California Department of Public Health & University of California, San Francisco, $239,870 for two years Pandemic Workforce Training Academy for California – FEMA/COVID (VTA) (Schools TA) California Department of Public Health & University of California, San Francisco, $161,475 Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Applied Research and Practice Training Program Centers for Disease Control and Prevention & Association of Schools of Public Health, $386,100

DAVID EISENMAN

CONVERGE: Coordinated Social Science, Engineering, and Interdisciplinary Extreme Events Reconnaissance Research – Public Health and Extreme Events Research Community of Practice National Science Foundation & University of Colorado, $78,350

AISHA FLETCHER AND CHANDRA FORD

Health Policy Research Scholars Cohort Six – 2022 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $124,000 for four years

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CHANDRA FORD

Project REFOCUS: Phase II Centers for Disease Control and Prevention & National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Inc., $5,146,185 for one-and-a-half years The Rapid Assessment of COVID Evidence (R.A.C.E.) Series Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $84,460 for one-and-a-half years

PATRICIA GANZ

A Model Clinical/Translational Research Program for Breast Cancer Survivors: A Focus on Cognitive Function After Breast Cancer Treatment The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, $415,000 for two years Cognitive Training for Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment: A Multi-Center Randomized Controlled Trial National Cancer Institute & Ohio State University, $272,174 for five years

DANA ROSE GARFIN

Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Trauma-Exposed, Homeless Women National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, $228,717 for one-and-a-half years

GILBERT GEE

COVID-19 Multilingual Resource Hub for Vaccine Equity Campaign Sierra Health Foundation, $199,955 for one-and-a-half years Understanding the Impact of Structural Racism on Racial/Ethnic Inequities in Mortality: The Multiethnic Cohort Study National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities & University of California, San Francisco, $415,351 for five years

RISHA GIDWANI

Informing the Design of a GameBased Intervention to Improve Health Insurance Literacy Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, $50,000

BETH GLENN

Effectiveness and Mechanisms of Multilevel Implementation Strategies to Improve Provider Recommendation and Advance Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination: A Cluster Randomized Trial National Cancer Institute & Kaiser Foundation Research, $95,465 for five years

PAMINA GORBACH

Collaborating Consortium of Cohorts Producing National Institute on Drug Abuse Opportunities (C3PNO) Bridge Funding Supplement National Institute on Drug Abuse, $1,000,961

ELEANOR HAYES-LARSON

Effects of Lifecourse Traumatic Stress on Late-Life Cognitive Decline, Dementia, and Neuroimaging Biomarkers National Institute on Aging, $241,233 for two years

DENA HERMAN

Partners in Excellence for Leadership in Maternal Child Health Nutrition Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), $1,124,840 for five years

ALISON K. HERRMANN

Advancing Understanding of Tobacco, Vaping & Cannabis Among Indigenous Mexican Agricultural Workers UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, $620,728 for two years Black Youth Protecting Black Peace Department of Health and Human Services - Office of Minority Health & The Amelia Ann Adams Whole Life Center, $165,000 for three years

JODY HEYMANN

Building the Investment Case for Early Childhood in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Conrad Hilton Foundation, $3,500,000 for three years Examining Economic Sustainability and How to Improve Equity in Paid Leave Policies Blue Shield of California Residence and Education Foundation, $354,768 For Developing Actionable Tools for Expanding Social Protection for Caregiving to Accelerate Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, $1,000,000 for one-and-a-half years Examining Key Equity Provisions in Paid Leave Policies Urban Institute & Family Values @ Work Action, Inc., $100,000 For Supporting Fundraising Planning for the WORLD Center William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, $100,000 For Supporting Longitudinal Data on Policies and Laws that Advance Gender Equity in Governance William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, $1,000,000 for one-and-a-half-years

ANDREW HOLBROOK

Accelerating Bayesian Dimension Reduction for Dynamic Network Data With Many Observations National Science Foundation, $300,000 for three years CAREER: Data-Centric Evolutionary Contagion Models With Parallel and Quantum Parallel Computing National Science Foundation, $549,227 for five years

MICHAEL JERRETT

Ambient Air Pollution and COVID-19 in California Environmental Protection Agency & University of California, Davis, $93,195 Improved Assessment and Tracking of Health Impacts for California Communities Most Burdened by Pollution California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board, $499,971 for two years CEVICA: Cooking Electrification and Ventilation Improvements for Children’s Asthma California Energy Commission & Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, $81,600 for three years

MICHAEL JERRETT AND HONGHU LIU

Aliso Canyon Community Exposure and Health Study (ACCOUNT) Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, $20,993,333 for five years

RACHAEL JONES

Southern California Education and Research Center Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $8,280,000 for five years The Interdisciplinary Training, Education and Research Activities for Assessing and Controlling Contaminants from Emerging Technologies (InTERACCT) Program National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences & University of Minnesota, $165,590 for four years U-Cover: University of Utah Containment Ventilation for Exposure Reduction Department of Defense - U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA), $90,900 for two years Chief Editor of the Annals of Work Exposures and Health The British Occupational Hygiene Society, $257,184

LEEKA KHEIFETS

Exploring Pesticide Use in Plant Nurseries Under Power Line Rights of Way Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), $182,367 TransExpo Study Development (Supplement) Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), $50,000

KATHRYN KIETZMAN

Economic Security for Older Adults in San Francisco and California: Assuring the Elder Index as a Benchmark Metta Fund, $100,000 for two years Health Equity Challenge The Molina Healthcare Charitable Foundation, $125,000 Master Plan for Aging (MPA) Data Dashboard Project California Department of Aging, $126,000 Multipurpose Senior Services Program (MSSP) and Community Based Adult

Services (CBAS) Needs Assessment California Department of Aging, $170,000 Health Equity Challenge II California Healthcare Foundation, $100,000; The Molina Healthcare Charitable Foundation, $100,000

GERALD KOMINSKI

California Health Policy Research Program 2021-22 The California Endowment & University of California, Berkeley, $68,500 Using California Simulation of Insurance Markets (CalSIM) to Model Health Coverage in Rapidly Changing Times California Healthcare Foundation & University of California, Berkeley, $537,000 for four years California Health Policy Research Program 2022-24 The California Endowment & University of California, Berkeley, $102,750 for one-and-a-half years

RANDALL KUHN

Using Mobile Phone Technology to Monitor Health and Housing Trajectories of People Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles Conrad Hilton Foundation & University of Southern California, $82,033 for one-and-a-half years

MIRIAM MARLIER

Mapping Vulnerable Populations in California to Climate-Related Hazards National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), $250,000 for two years

PHILIP MASSEY

C’est La Vie: Phase II Measurement, Learning, and Evaluation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation & The African Network for Health Education, $399,950 for three-and-a-half years Hashtag Human Papillomavirus (HPV): Engaging Parents Through Social Media to Increase HPV Vaccination National Cancer Institute & University of Arkansas, $126,655 for two years

FOLASADE MAY

Community Collaboration to Advance Racial/Ethnic Equity in Colorectal Cancer Screening (CARES) Stand Up To Cancer & The General Hospital Corporation, $815,506 for three years Multilevel Health System Intervention to Increase Surveillance Colonoscopy for High-Risk Colorectal Polyps National Cancer Institute, $3,106,096 for five years

ELIZABETH ROSE MAYEDA

Historical Social and Environmental Determinants of Memory Decline and Dementia Among U.S. Older Adults National Institute on Aging & Columbia University, $1,047,106 for five years

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Lifecourse Health, Cerebral Pathology and Ethnic Disparities in Dementia National Institute on Aging & University of California, Davis, $858,159 for five years

WILLIAM MCCARTHY

A Fiber-Diverse, Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Aerobic Exercise Reduce Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence UC-California Breast Cancer Research Program, $195,000 for two years Socioeconomic and Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Tobacco Uptake in Diverse Adolescent Minority Groups UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program & Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, $539,116 for three years

YING-YING MENG AND SUSAN BABEY

Preventable Hospitalizations and Emergency Department (ED) Visits Martin Luther King-Los Angeles (MLK-LA) Healthcare Corporation, $191,512

MATTHEW MIMIAGA

Adaptive Intervention Strategies Trial for Strengthening Adherence to Antiretroviral HIV Treatment Among Youth National Institute of Nursing Research, $814,423 for two years Efficacy of a Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Uptake & Adherence Intervention Among Male Sex Workers Using a 2-Stage Randomization Design National Institute of Nursing Research & Brown University, $1,657,925 for five years Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) Scientific Leadership Center National Institute of Child Health and Human Development & Florida State University, $1,241,300 for five years Digital, Limited Interaction Pilot Trial of LifeSkills Mobile to Promote Engagement in Care & Sexual Health Among Young Transgender Women Recently Diagnosed With HIV (Supplement) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, $188,760

MATTHEW MIMIAGA AND ROGER DETELS

Innovation Fund Application to the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study/Women’s Interagency HIV Study Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS): COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance & Hesitancy (CVBH) Study in People With HIV (Supplement) National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, $819,374 Los Angeles Clinical Research Site (CRS) for the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study/ Women’s Interagency HIV Study (MACS/ WIHS) Combined Cohort Study (Supplement) National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, $452,307

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​CORRINA MOUCHERAUD

A New Collaboration to Understand Factors Associated With HPV Vaccine Uptake for Girls in Kenya Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, $150,000 for two years Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Routine Childhood Vaccination in Kenya Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute, Inc., $49,912 Identifying Modifiable Multilevel Factors Associated With HPV Vaccine Uptake in Kenya and Malawi National Cancer Institute, $300,000

HOISUM NGUYEN AND ONYEBUCHI ARAH

Health Policy Research Scholars Cohort Six – 2022 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $124,000 for four years

ROCH NIANOGO

Identifying Key Modifiable Risk Factors California Department of Public Health & University of California, San Francisco, $61,363 Impact of Lifestyle Interventions on Alzheimer’s Disease: A Microsimulation Alzheimer’s Association, $149,305 for two-and-a-half years

AKIHIRO NISHI

Network Intervention Planning Without Actual Network Data for Infectious Disease Control National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, $538,884 for four years The Evolution of Overconfidence and the Role of Early-Warning Signals Amid Pandemics Japan Science and Technology Agency, $468,000 for three years RAISE: IHBEM. Integrating Traditional Survey and Digital Sociobehavioral Data Into Infectious Disease Models for Long-Term Forecasting National Science Foundation, $997,739 for three years

CORINA PENAIA AND NINEZ PONCE

Health Policy Research Scholars Cohort Six – 2022 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $124,000 for four years

JULIAN PONCE AND HIRAM BELTRAN-SANCHEZ Health Policy Research Scholars Cohort Six – 2022 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $124,000 for four years

NINEZ PONCE

California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, $447,600 for two years; California Department of Health Care Services (DHS), $4,200,300 for three years; California Wellness Foundation,

U C L A F I E L D I N G S C H O O L O F P U B L I C H E A LT H M AG A Z I N E

$415,000 for three years; California Civil Rights Department, $1,000,000 for four-and-a-half years; California Healthcare Foundation, $990,438 for three years; The California Endowment, $3,174,488 for two years; California Children and Families Commission (First 5 California), $3,408,429 for four years California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) Oversample for Martin Luther King Community Health Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health Foundation, $179,000 for one-and-a-half years Growing the Model for Data-Driven Policymaking for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Populations in Time of Pandemic to Help Promote Health Equity Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $500,000 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) Addressing Health Equity and Data (AHEAD) Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) - Office of Minority Health, $250,000 for three years The Impacts of Mitigation Strategies to Prevent COVID-19 Transmission in Native American Communities National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities & National Bureau of Economic Research Incorporated, $675,000 for five years Trends and Scenarios for California’s Future: Universal Effective Coverage and Population Health Equity California Community Foundation & University of California, Berkeley, $90,000 for one-and-a-half years California Health Interview Survey Santa Clara County Oversample County of Santa Clara Department of Public Health, $1,048,592 for two-and-a half years Community Partnership in Creating the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Health Equity Index State of California & University of California, Riverside, $160,606 Establishing the Data Equity Center to Center Equity in the Design, Collection, Production, and Dissemination of Population Health Data Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $999,000 for three years Hosting Meetings Targeting Health Data Sectors to Brainstorm Effective Approaches for Driving Data Equity Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $250,000 for two years Technical Assistance for Data Disaggregation Efforts Leadership Conference Education Fund, $325,000 for two years

NINEZ PONCE AND SUSAN BABEY California Breast Cancer Research Program Policy (CBCRP) Initiative: Breastfeeding for Disadvantaged UC-California Breast Cancer Research Program, $123,404

NADEREH POURAT

African American Infant and Maternal Mortality (AAIMM) Prevention Initiative Evaluation Services

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, $1,020,514 for two years Anesthesia and Sedation Research Project California Department of Public Health, $716,748 for two years Parks After Dark (PAD) Evaluation Services Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, $277,400 for two years

MICHAEL PRELIP

UCLA Public Health Scholars Training Program Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $4,250,000 for five years

ANNE RIMOIN

COVID-19 Vaccination in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Assessment of Behavioral and Social Determinants for Vaccination in Target Populations The Task Force for Global Health, Inc., $400,425 Knowledge Research Dissemination for Routine Immunization Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, $199,900 Strengthening Pharmacovigilance Systems and Adverse Events Reporting for Maternal Immunization Safety in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Food and Drug Administration, $2,814,105 for three years

ANNE RIMOIN AND NICOLE HOFF

Innovation in Routine Immunization (RI) Rapid Coverage Surveys Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, $998,335 Monkeypox Threat Reduction Network (MPX-TRN): Using the Sentinel Sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a Regional Training Center to Create Sustainable Biosurveillance Systems in Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Priority Countries Department of Defense - Defense Threat Reduction Agency, $4,989,237 for five years Ecological and Epidemiological Investigations of High-Consequence Zoonotic Pathogens at the Livestock, Wildlife and Human Interface United States Department of Agriculture - Agriculture Research Service (ARS), $1,664,956 for three years

BEATE RITZ

A Multi-Omics Approach to Environment and Depression in Parkinson’s Disease (MOOD-PD) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, $429,000 for two years DNA Methylation Studies of Parkinson’s Disease in the Systemic Synuclein Sampling Study Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, $299,904 for two years Microbiome, Pesticides and Parkinson’s in Latinos (Supplement) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, $296,322 for two years Parkinson’s Disease Clinical Features, Progression, and Quality of Care in Latino Patients From a Population-Based Epidemiological Study in the United States

Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, $197,843 for one-and-a-half years Preterm Birth, Childhood Autism, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer Disease and Air Pollution California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board, $998,612 for two years Air Pollution, Metabolome, and Alzheimer’s Disease in Mexican Americans National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, $2,274,447 for three years Early Life Vulnerability to Climate-Driven Wildfire Events on Pregnancy and Child Developmental Health Outcomes in Underserved Populations Environmental Protection Agency & University of California, Davis, $61,412 Environmental and Gut-Brain Determinants of Cognitive Outcomes in PD Department of Defense - U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA), $596,016 for four years

MARISSA SEAMANS

Real-World Complexities in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment: Understanding Family Comorbidity, High-Risk Medication Use, and Costs Related to Treatment Adherence and Health Outcomes National Institute on Drug Abuse, $915,245 for five years

DAMLA SENTURK

Toward Scalable Biomarker-Based Prediction of ASD in High-Risk Infants (IBIS) National Institute of Mental Health & Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, $54,936 for three years Mechanisms of Change With Early Intervention in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex National Institute of Child Health and Human Development & Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, $57,015 for one-and-a-half years

MAY SUDHINARASET

Use of Reproductive Health Care Among Asian Immigrant Women National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, $3,038,468 for five years

IRWIN (MEL) SUFFET

Training the California Air Research Board Enforcement Staff for the Investigation of Odor Nuisances California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board, $100,605

CANDACE TSAI

Occupational and Environmental Exposures and Work Practices for Nanomaterials and Electronic Products National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, $1,101,972 for five years

JENNIFER WAGMAN

$350,000 for one-and-a-half years Resilience and Growth of the Global Campus Violence Prevention Research Network Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc., $350,000 for two years

MAY WANG, MICHAEL PRELIP, AND HUA ZHOU

Modelers and Storytellers: Transdisciplinary Training to Advance Community Health Intervention Research National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, $725,577 for four years

ALEXANDRA WOLLUM AND JESSICA GIPSON

Provider Attitudes, Long-Acting Reversible Contraception, and Quality of Care: A Mixed Methods Study in Tanzania National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, $77,490 for two years

NAOMI ZEWDE

Issues in Insurance Design: A Public Option and Wealth Inequality Under High Deductible Insurance Commonwealth Fund, $57,089

XI ZHU

Senior Scientific Research Assistance, Statistical Analysis, Project Management and Public Health Technical Assistance Between VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and Educational Affiliate University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Veterans Affairs, $445,000 Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technologies (SMART) Cancer Care Teams: Enhancing Electronic Health Record (EHR) Communication to Improve Interprofessional Teamwork National Cancer Institute & University of California, Davis, $680,778 for five years Support Services for Joint Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) Projects at the Greater Los Angeles Veteran Affairs (VA) Health Care System Department of Veterans Affairs, $310,000

YIFANG ZHU

LA100 Equity Strategies: Air Quality and Human Health Benefits Associated with Clean Vehicle Transition in Los Angeles City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, $394,718 Reducing Environmental Exposures to Electronic Cigarettes Aerosols and Associated Health Effects UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, $1,146,785 for three years Public Health Scholarship Program (PHSP) Department of Health & Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), $1,499,992 for three years

Global Partnership to Prevent Sexual Violence on College and University Campuses WellSpring Philanthropic Fund Inc.,

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RESEARCH, INNOVATION & IMPACT DAY 60TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION APRIL 21, 2023

THE UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH MAGAZINE

60TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE