Faculty

Primary Faculty

Patience Afulani, assistant professor in UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Patience Afulani, PhD, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Global Health
  • Implementation Science
  • Lifecourse
  • Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health, health equity, quality of care, person-centered care, respectful maternity care, global health, implementation science, food security, migrant health, minority health


Alison Cohen, PhD
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology
  • Lifecourse
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • health equity, adolescent and young adult health, social determinants of health, community-based participatory research, program and policy evaluation


Mara Decker, assistant professor in UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Mara Decker, DPH
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Lifecourse
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Sexual and reproductive health, youth and adolescents, applied research, social epidemiology, health and empowerment, program evaluation, health disparities, global health and development, demographic change and the environment, human rights, social ecology


Nadia Diamond-Smith, assistant professor at UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Nadia Diamond-Smith, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Global Health
  • Lifecourse
  • Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Maternal and child health in the developing world with a focus on gender inequality/women's empowerment, family planning and abortion and nutrition in the preconception and pregnancy period


Maria Glymour

Maria Glymour, ScD, MS
Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Aging
  • Epidemiology of Cardiovascular and Neurological Disorders
  • Lifecourse
  • Research Methods in Epidemiology
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Social determinants of health in aging; Cognitive aging, Alzheimer's disease, and dementia; Socioeconomic and geographic determinants of stroke incidence and outcomes; Causal inference in social epidemiology


Margaret Handley, professor at UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Margaret Handley, PhD, MPH
Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Clinical Epidemiology and Methods
  • Global Health
  • Implementation Science
  • Lifecourse
  • Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology
  • Research Methods in Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Intervention design, linking public health and primary care interventions to address health disparities, implementation and dissemination sciences, chronic disease prevention, safety net innovation, public health literacy, migration and health/trans-national health, and environmental pollution


Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski is associate professor at UCSF Dept. of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, PhD, MS
Associate Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Global Health
  • Infectious Disease
  • Lifecourse
  • Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Tools, tests and technologies that can help identify pregnant women and babies at increased risk for preterm birth and associated birth defects and developmental delays


Suzanna Martinez, PhD
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Lifecourse
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • childhood obesity, sleep, physical activity, diet, food insecurity, health equity, minority health, Latino health, health disparities in higher education


Kala Mehta, associate professor at UCSF Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Kala Mehta, DSc, MPH
Associate Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Aging
  • Global Health
  • Lifecourse
  • Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Health disparities, race/ethnicity, pathway programs, social entrepreneurship, global health


Michael Nevitt, PhD
Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Aging
  • Lifecourse


Rosalyn Plotzker, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Infectious Disease
  • Lifecourse

Research Interests:
  • anal cancer, sexually transmitted infections, congenital syphilis

Faculty Spotlight Interview


Eva Raphael, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Infectious Disease
  • Lifecourse

Research Interests:
  • drug-resistant infections, community risk factors for infections, urinary tract infections, using molecular microbiology, social, and spatial epidemiology methods to address inequities in community-onset infections


Peggy Reynolds, professor at UCSF Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Peggy Reynolds, PhD
Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Cancer Epidemiology
  • Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology
  • Lifecourse

Research Interests:
  • The role of physical/occupational environmental exposures and windows of susceptibility on cancer risk.


Ann Schwartz, professor at UCSF Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Ann V. Schwartz, PhD, MPH
Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Aging
  • Lifecourse

Research Interests:
  • Diabetes, osteoporosis, bone marrow adiposity, dual x-ray absorptiometry, body composition


Samira Soleimanpour, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Implementation Science
  • Lifecourse
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • school health, child and adolescent health, health equity, child and adolescent mental health, program and policy evaluation, community-based participatory research


Dara Torgerson, PhD
Associate Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Bioinformatics
  • Biostatistics
  • Genetic Epidemiology
  • Lifecourse
  • Machine Learning
  • Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Integrative Genomics, Metabolomics, Statistical Genetics, Minority Health, Neonatology, Respiratory Outcomes


Jacqueline Torres, assistant professor at UCSF Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Jacqueline Torres, MPH, MS, PhD
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Aging
  • Global Health
  • Lifecourse

Research Interests:
  • Social and migration-related determinants of health and aging in the US and Latin America; health effects of immigration policy across the life-course; health disparities; family dynamics and health


Jennifer Velloza, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Global Health
  • Implementation Science
  • Infectious Disease
  • Lifecourse

Research Interests:
  • Global mental health, HIV/AIDS, adolescent health, health equity, community-engaged research, implementation science, mixed methods


Justin White, assistant professor in UCSF Dept. of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Justin White, PhD
Associate Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Cardiovascular and Neurological Disorders
  • Global Health
  • Implementation Science
  • Lifecourse
  • Research Methods in Epidemiology
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Health economics, behavioral risk factors, tobacco use, global health policy, behavioral economics, applied econometrics, impact evaluation


Jennifer Yarger, PhD
Assistant Professor

Research Area(s):

  • Lifecourse
  • Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Sexual and reproductive health, urinary tract infections, adolescent and young adult health, access to care, health education, health equity, program and policy evaluation


Secondary Faculty

Willa Brenowitz, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Aging
  • Epidemiology of Cardiovascular and Neurological Disorders
  • Lifecourse
  • Research Methods in Epidemiology
  • Social Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, role of sensory impairments and other chronic diseases in brain aging, social determinants of health, causal inference methods


Kristine Yaffe, MD
Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Aging
  • Epidemiology of Cardiovascular and Neurological Disorders
  • Lifecourse

Research Interests:
  • epidemiology of dementia and cognitive aging, modifiable risk factors for dementia, dementia prevention trials


Emeritus Faculty

Dennis black, professor at UCSF Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Dennis Black, PhD
Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Epidemiology of Aging
  • Lifecourse


Dominic Montagu, DrPH, MPH, MBA
Professor
[email protected]

Research Area(s):

  • Global Health
  • Infectious Disease
  • Lifecourse
  • Reproductive, Perinatal and Neonatal Epidemiology

Research Interests:
  • Maternal health, family planning, and abortion services in low- and middle-income countries, measurement, people-centered care, quality improvement