From the Chair Over the year-plus that we've all been working from home, we have added a number of new faculty members and postdoctoral fellows to the department. We'd like to offer this digital introduction, or refresher, to our newer scholars and the expertise they bring – with special thanks for the scholars who provided pithy synopses of their work. It's a real privilege to keep learning from all of you. - Kirsten

Assistant Professor Patience Afulani's research focuses on the social and health system factors underlying disparities in reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health. She is particularly interested in how to improve person-centered care for disadvantaged groups. Dr. Afulani also works with the Bixby Center. "I believe everyone should have access to responsive and respectful care, regardless of who they are, where they go, or who they know."

Willa Brenowitz (formerly a postdoc working with Maria Glymour and Kristine Yaffe, now an assistant professor of psychiatry) studies factors that contribute to brain aging. She's interested in improving etiologic understanding of dementia to inform development of effective treatments and preventive strategies that will reduce dementia burden and improve quality of life for older adults. Her current research falls under two themes: clarifying the relationship between sensory impairments and dementia, and identifying early manifestations of Alzheimer's disease and their timing.

Associate Professor Tony Capra's group uses the tools of computer science and statistics to address problems in genetics, evolution and biomedicine. Dr. Capra came to UCSF from Vanderbilt in July 2020. "We are particularly passionate about understanding how evolutionary perspectives can inform our understanding and treatment of disease."

We are, sadly, bidding farewell to Assistant Professor Brittany Chambers. Dr. Chambers has contributed rigorous, person-centered research on the effects of structural racism on Black birthing people and their infants. She will be moving just up the road to UC Davis, so we hope she'll stay in touch.

Dakota Cintron is a postdoctoral fellow working with Maria Glymour. He uses statistical models to derive meaning from measurements including generalized linear models, latent variable models, multilevel models, structural equation models and item response models.  "I am passionate about helping design empirical studies which yield inferences to answer pressing questions."

Assistant Professor Alison Cohen joined the department in April from the University of San Francisco. She does applied epidemiology research to document health inequities and evaluate program and policy interventions that could reduce inequities in health and well-being across the lifecourse. Most of her research is community-driven: She is involved in research-practice partnerships locally, nationally and internationally.  "I became an epidemiologist because I wanted to harness the power of numbers for good. I'm passionate about applying my research findings to inform policies and programs that can promote health and reduce health inequities."

Assistant Professor Rebecca Graff's research seeks to: 1) discern the shared genetic basis of seemingly distinct cancer types and of cancer and other chronic diseases; 2) leverage genetic information to improve prostate-specific antigen screening; 3) determine the metabolomic basis of lethal prostate cancer; 4) examine the role of lifestyle factors in prostate cancer survivorship and in kidney cancer risk and survivorship.

Assistant Professor Suzanna Martinez researches the interrelationships of nutrition, physical activity, sleep and obesity among Latino children, and the connections between food insecurity, sleep, mental health, and physical well-being in college students. As a first-generation Latina researcher, she is an advocate for her community as she works to improve health equity by identifying structural barriers and targeting upstream social determinants of health.

Jovia Nierenberg, a postdoctoral fellow working with John Witte and Elad Ziv, researches germline genomics and cancer. Her current projects include an exome-wide association study of breast cancer in Latinas and a study on the genetics of multiple cancers in the same individual using two large cohorts. "I am passionate about examining the relationship between human genetics and disease risk."

Assistant Professor Jackie Torres studies how policies, social factors, and family dynamics intersect to shape health across the life course, with a particular focus on mid and late-life health outcomes. One thread of her recent work focuses on how the circumstances of adult children – including their socioeconomic resources and migration status -- shapes the health and aging outcomes of older parents in the U.S. and globally.

Assistant Professor Paul Wesson's research focuses on socially marginalized populations. He is studying the impact of San Francisco's de-carceration policies on engagement in care for people living with HIV who have been involved in the criminal justice system – specifically looking for possible interruptions in care engagement and changing patterns in services engaged outside of jail. Wesson is also working with Dr. Margot Kushel to design a sampling strategy for a statewide survey of experiences of homelessness. 

Justin White, an assistant professor in the Institute for Health Policy Studies, researches the effects of incentive-based interventions and economic and social policies on behavioral risk factors like tobacco and diet that affect health outcomes in underserved and at-risk populations. The interventions are informed by theory from behavioral economics and evaluated using randomized control trials. The policy evaluations (e.g., of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes) apply quasi-experimental econometric methods.

Stay tuned for short profiles of more new colleagues, including Mara Decker, Jean Feng, Efstathios Gennatas, Yulin Hswen, Fei Jiang, Dan Kelly, Pam Murnane, Vasileious Ntranos, Rosalyn Plotzker, Vinay Prasad, Eva Raphael, Nooshin Razani, Cathy Samoyoa, Aaron Scheffler and Dara Torgerson. 

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