Biography
Dr. Bernadette Boden-Albala is the Director and Founding Dean of the Program in Public Health in the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences at University of California, Irvine, where she is also a Professor in the Department of Health, Society and Behavior and the Department of Neurology in the School of Medicine. She is an internationally recognized expert in the social epidemiology of stroke and cardiovascular disease. Over the past 15 years, her robust research portfolio has focused on defining and intervening on social determinants of disease, including the role of sex, race-ethnicity, socio-economic status, social support, stress, and social networks on disparities and patterns across the U.S. and globally.
Since January 2020, under Dean Boden-Albala’s leadership, the UCI Program in Public Health has become the key academic partner for government agencies and community organizations to address COVID-19 in the region. She has led efforts at the university, county, and state level on COVID-19 preparedness and response, including strategies around communication, health behaviors, and testing. The program has fostered a strong relationship with the Orange County Health Agency (OCHCA), and, in collaboration with OCHCA and other community partners, initiated a unique health equity-based, bilingual contact tracing strategy for Orange County. Dean Boden-Albala was principal investigator (PI) on two large-scale community COVID-19 serosurveillance projects in Orange County and the city of Santa Ana and serves on multiple strategic advisory groups and tasks forces to guide COVID-19 response. She was named Community Hero by the Greater Irvine Chamber in May 2020 for her efforts and is frequently featured on local, state, and national media for her expertise on issues around COVID-19.
This important work has been a defining pillar of Dean Boden-Albala’s efforts to move the Program in Public Health forward to become the School of Population and Public Health and the dedication of the program’s students, faculty, and staff to delivering public health to the surrounding community during the pandemic exemplifies the reasons why Dean Boden-Albala was motivated to come to UCI. She was inspired by the commitment of the UC system to achieving quality in education that is accessible and affordable. Dean Boden-Albala was also intrigued by the large, diverse, and unique undergraduate program in public health at UCI and was excited by students and their commitment to healthier communities here and abroad. Equally, she was struck by the staff’s strong demonstration of dedication to faculty and students. Dean Boden-Albala was encouraged that there was campus-wide enthusiastic support to create a new school and was motivated by the faculty’s commitment toward social justice, academic excellence and passion for the growth and transition of this program to a world class school of public health. Since joining UCI, she has expanded the Program in Public Health to four departments to include the Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Health, Society, and Behavior; joining the founding Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention.
Research Interests
Boden-Albala has dedicated her career to promoting health equity for all, defining and intervening on social determinants of disease, and leading community-level health assessments and solutions. She has expertise in cardiovascular disease and stroke, emerging infectious diseases, epidemiology as well as global health.
Boden-Albala looks forward to mobilizing the entire UCI Public Health community’s commitment towards health equity, social justice, academic excellence and passion for the growth and transition of this program to a world-class school of population and public health.
Current Projects/Studies
In addition to being a professor of health, society, & behavior and epidemiology & biostatistics at UCI Public Health, Boden-Albala also holds an appointment at the UCI School of Medicine as a professor of neurology. She is a lead investigator on the National Initiative for Minority Involvement in Neurological Clinical Trials, which has resulted in improving racial-ethnic minorities and women’s participation rates in clinical trials.
Education
Prior to UCI, Boden-Albala held leadership and academic positions with the NYU School of Global Public Health, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health where she also received her Master of Public Health and Doctor of Public Health degrees.
Honors and Awards
Boden-Albala has built a robust portfolio of research that focuses on reducing health disparities for America’s disadvantaged, including the role of sex, race-ethnicity, socio-economic status, social support, stress, and social networks on vascular disease and patterns across the U.S. and globally. Much of her work, documented in 200+ authored or co-authored publications, has become a blueprint for community-based stroke and heart disease prevention.
