Across the nation and the world, disparities in quality of life, rates of disease and disability, and access to care are vast and increasing. Achieving health equity requires increasing opportunities for everyone to reach their full health potential, regardless of who they are, where they live, and what they do. At UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, we see health equity as an overarching social justice issue that has applications in all fields and disciplines.
Sean Arayasirikul, PhD
Research Interests
Dr. Arayasirikul’s research interrogates the social etiology and root causes of health among sexual and gender minoritized communities. They believe in the transformative power of community-engaged research, digital technologies, and homegrown interventions. They are focused on the following lines of inquiry:
1) the examination of health disparities and inequity among sexual and gender minoritized (SGM) communities, particularly trans women, BIPOC communities, and those with intersectional identities;
2) the development and implementation science of systems-level, digital health interventions; and
3) liberatory applications of participatory approaches to surveillance, data democratization, and health justice.
For a list of published work on PubMed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1xM98YsP9VoAb/bibliography/public/.
UCI students interested in getting involved in this work are encouraged to complete an interest form: https://forms.gle/GF5WhUhJcpLaYJm17.
Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH
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 Wen 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.
Tim Bruckner, MPH, PhD
Research Interests
Dr. Bruckner focuses his research on perinatal and life course epidemiology, economic downturns and health, mental health and health policy.
Theodore K. Gideonse, MFA, PhD
Research Interests
Some of Dr. Gideonese’s research interests are in HIV/AIDS, substance use, incarceration, public health communication, health provider education, qualitative methods, and ethnography.
Suellen Hopfer, MS, PhD
Research Interests
One of Hopfer’s main research interests is in health communication.
Alana LeBrón, MS, PhD
Research Interests
Her research interests include structural racism and health, health of Latino/a communities, and community-based participatory research.
Karen Lincoln, PhD, MSW, MA, FGSA
Research Interests
Dr. Lincoln is a social worker with a joint degree in social work and sociology. Reflecting her interdisciplinary training, her scholarship is grounded in theories and methods developed in the fields of social work, sociology and psychology. She has applied these principles to identify factors that both harm and promote mental health and well-being among Black Americans.
Dr. Lincoln is the only scholar nationally who has systematically contributed to the literature on the impact of negative interaction (e.g., conflict, excessive demands, manipulation) on mental health among African American and Caribbean Black adults. Her efforts have 1) advanced our understanding of the impact and modeling of social support and negative interaction on mental health among diverse populations, 2) identified negative interaction as a particularly important risk factor for mental health among vulnerable populations, and 3) documented within-and between-group differences with respect to risk and protective factors associated with a variety of mental health outcomes among diverse populations.
Brittany Morey, MPH, PhD
Research Interests
Morey’s research focuses on how structural barriers shape racial/ethnic health inequities with special focus on the ways in which neighborhood social and physical environments impact the health and well-being of AAPI communities. Her work aims to inform equitable public policy and programming to reduce the burden of disease and disparities. Outside of her role at UCI, she also sits on the board of directors for the Center for the Pacific Asian Family, a non-profit organization in Los Angeles that addresses the root causes of gender and family violence in AAPI communities.
Denise Diaz Payán, MPP, PhD
Research Interests
Some of Dr. Payán’s research interests are health policy, obesity, nutrition, food security, state policymaking, advocacy coalitions, evaluation, and global health.
Annie Ro, PhD
Research Interests
Dr. Ro’s research interests include social determinants of immigrant health, health demography, discrimination and health, and social epidemiology.
Dylan Roby, PhD
Research Interests
Some of Dr. Roby’s research interests are health reform, insurance markets, the Affordable Care Act passage and implementation, and more.
Sora Park Tanjasiri, MPH, DrPH
Research Interests
Some of Sora Tanjasiri’s research interests are cancer health disparities, cancer prevention, breast and cervical early detection, and community-based participatory research.
Veronica Vieira, DSc
Research Interests
Dr. Vieira’s research interests include spatial epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, environmental disparities and exposure modeling. Vieira has an extensive knowledge of GIS, groundwater modeling, cluster detection methods, and on persistent environmental contaminants including tetrachloroethylene (PCE, a dry-cleaning solvent), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, a perfluorinated compound (PFC) involved in the manufacturing of Teflon), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs, a common class of flame retardants). Components of her work include improving methods for geocoding rural addresses using GIS and examining the relationship between PFOA exposures and health outcomes. Vieira’s research also includes method development for spatial epidemiology such as disease mapping, cluster detection, and space-time interactions.
Jun Wu, PhD
Research Interests
Dr. Wu is focused on population-based research of environmental exposure assessment, environmental epidemiology, and environmental health disparity. She also works with local and regional community partners on environmental justice issues related to air pollution, soil contamination, and climate change.
View her personal research website.
