search this site
Department of Community Health Sciences
Faculty
CHS Department Faculty and Research Interests
To view their faculty profile, please click on their name.
Faculty Research and Expertise Portal
Learn more about the cutting-edge research our faculty are engaged in, as well as their areas of expertise using the Faculty Research and Expertise Portal.
Global Projects
Our faculty and students at the Fielding School of Public Health are actively engaged in research, service and training around the world. Use this Global Projects Map to explore current and recent research, training and service activities around the world that faculty and students at the Fielding School of Public Health are engaged in.
Core Faculty
Demography of health and aging, with particular focus on Latin American countries; Biodemographic patterns of health in adult populations; and Development and application of demographic methods to investigate health inequalities using macro and micro data.
Social epidemiology/social determinants of health; conceptualization & measurement of race, ethnicity and related constructs; health equity; HIV/AIDS prevention; Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP)/Critical Race Theory; sexual minority health; access to care.
Structural and interpersonal racism; health inequalities; racial, ethnic, and immigrant populations; life course; stress; neighborhoods; Asian Americans.
Global sexual and reproductive health; maternal health; fertility preferences; family planning; unintended pregnancy; abortion; HIV/AIDS; influence of gender and socio-cultural context on couple communication, reproductive decision-making and outcomes; mixed-method research.
Health communication research including implementation and evaluation of an FAS prevention campaign; pretesting and scripting of bioterrorism preparedness messages; risk communication for environmental hazards; entertainment media advocacy in areas of childhood disease prevention, injury prevention, smoking, and disaster preparedness; development of multimedia health curricula for children, patients, and providers.
Global health; health and development; migration, health and well-being; program evaluation and research design; forecasting; survey design; analysis of administrative data; South Asia and Middle East
Global health; public health policy; heath services research; primary care; health inequalities; Brazil.
Demographic and population policy; maternal and child health; social determinants of health behavior
Development and evaluation of community nutrition; health communication; health promotion interventions. Current projects include physical education in low-income schools; changing the food environment by engaging small business owners; using systems sciences to understand interventions’ impact on obesity in young children; development of health literacy measures for West African youth. Works both locally and internationally (West Africa and Mexico).
Global sexual and reproductive health, maternal health, family planning, and abortion; social determinants of health; global migration; health services, health equity; social contexts of adolescents and migrant youth; social policies and immigrant youth in the US; Asian and Pacific Islanders; Myanmar, Kenya, India, Asia
Psychosocial Stress and Coping; African Americans; racial and SES health disparities; aging and the life course; mental-physical health comorbidities; maternal and child health; psychobiology of stress; biomarkers.
Women's health and health disparities; social and behavioral determinants of women's health; psychosocial stressors and health; biopsychosocial models of women's health; biomarkers and allostatic load; complementary and alternative medicine; acupuncture.
Global health; reproductive, perinatal and child health and development; environmental and lifestyle factors; life-course and reproductive epidemiology; child health disparities; biomarkers in population research; policy impacts.
Access to health care and health equity for older people, including projects that identify inequities in health status and in the use of health services for Latino, African American, Asian American, and American Indian elders; analyses of public policies that impact older adults; access to health care and public policies for immigrants from Latin America; organizational capacity building projects in communities of color; and projects that investigate equity of access for the elderly to health resources within and between countries in Latin America.
Social and physical environmental determinants of diet-related conditions with a focus on childhood obesity; immigrant food-related behaviors, and evaluations of nutrition programs for children
Affiliated Faculty
Nutrition policies and programs (domestic); maternal and child health; access to care, especially primary and preventive care, for children with special needs; nutritional status of children with developmental disabilities
Health communications; promoting health among high-risk populations; identifying how to reach popular audiences with health messages.
Public health leadership and program development; managerial and policy solutions to community health issues
Worker health and safety through education, community-based research, and policy initiatives; occupational health disparities; environmental sustainability; labor-community capacity-building.
Emergency public health (domestic & international); disaster relief; health education and health systems management; child health; reproductive health
Substance use and risk behaviors among adolescents; prevention and intervention; clinical psychology.
Community resilience; disasters; climate change
Community, media, legislative and organizational advocacy; reproductive health; global health
Health disparities relative to race/ethnicity, gender and culture-based differences; health communication and health literacy; sociotechnical challenges in use of health information technologies such as telemedicine and mobile technologies among multicultural underserved populations; cancer and Asian Americans; qualitative and quantitative social research methodology and community-based participatory research approaches.
Health services research; maternal quality of care, cesarean delivery (appropriateness); VBAC, health disparities in pregnancy outcomes
Preventive medicine; clinical informatics; value in healthcare; program evaluation; respiratory epidemiology; pharmaceutical and biotech industry; intentional disasters.
Maternal and child health; nutritional assessment with a focus on dietary quality; food security; health disparities of underserved populations; international nutrition
Climate Change, Sustainable Dietary Patterns, and Food Security, specifically how the impacts of global climate change and variability affect the ability to grow sufficient food and calories in developing countries; in particular, Ethiopia.
Epidemiology and International Health methods of control of communicable diseases; the application of methods of disease control for reduction, elimination and eradication of communicable diseases in populations; and the use of epidemiology for evidence-based health policy. Mitigation of, preparedness for, and response to the natural occurrence, accidental release, or the deliberate use of biological agents that affect health.
Working with health-related organizations to integrate social marketing and health communication into programmatic and organizational change efforts; research and evaluation for social marketing projects
Middle Eastern women’s health; epidemiology; maternal and child health; mental health in refugee populations; sustainable development.
General nutrition; amino acid metabolism; nutrition in acute and chronic renal failure; nutrition in maintenance hemodialysis and chronic peritoneal dialysis patients; nutrition in renal transplant recipients; metabolic response to exercise training
Community nutrition education; social and physical determinants of nutrition-related health and disease; food insecurity; policy impacts on nutrition health; health professional education.
Michael C. Lu, MD, MPH is a professor in teh Department of Community Healthg Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and an associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology at UCLA. Dr.
Nutrition, obesity, physical activity and exercise, motivational interviewing and behavior change, pediatrics and child health
Family medicine; violence prevention; immigrant health; access to health care for underserved populations; Latino and Latin American communities.
Pregnancy, prenatal care and fetal development
Child and community psychology and psychiatry. Design, implementation and dissemination of cognitive behavioral interventions for multiple populations, including high risk youth and families. Development and implementation of programs promoting healthy lifestyles for families, and decreasing risk of negative health and mental health outcomes for high risk populations. Research interests also include HIV/AIDS prevention with adolescents, suicide among adolescents, homeless youths, assessment and modification of children's social skills, ethnic identity, group processes, and cross-ethnic interactions.
Breastfeeding policy and promotion; international maternal and child health; child nutrition with a focus on school based intervention programs; Pediatric Residency Education with a focus on Community Pediatrics
Health risk assessment for local community disaster hazards using verified models; defining priority rural Public Health issues including demographics of access to health care at the US-Mexico Border; health care sector capacity in public health disasters, or the ability of the acute health care system to develop "surge" capacity in disasters; exploration of current research techniques and methods used in public health disaster research.
Medical anthropology; disease and health services in Latin America
Reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly of adolescents; community-based approaches to improve women and children's health in sub-Saharan Africa; performance of health providers in under-resourced clinics and hospitals
Gerontology and aging; Health Disparities among the Older adult population; the Impact of racism / discrimination on health; the differential Impact of public policy on Diverse populations; social, health, and economic issues affecting minority elderly and their families
Emeriti Faculty
Disparities in mental health risk, especially gender and SES; social stress and psychosocial resources such as social support; impact of neighborhood structure, caregiving; adolescent and aged populations.
Natural, technological and human-initiated disasters; intentional and unintentional injury; ophthalmic clinical trials (e.g., PRK, LASIK); and research methodology with particular attention to the design, data processing and analysis of data collected with questionnaires in population-based surveys.
Sociology of medicine and health promotion; complementary and alternative medicine
Health disparities in cancer control among diverse ethnic populations; development of cross-culturally valid concepts and measures to expand existing behavior theories in PH using qualitative research methods, and applied through intervention studies primarily in the Asian American communities. Cultural competency training for health professionals, doctor/patient communication, and end-of-life care in multicultural populations
Multicultural health communication, global health education and promotion, and community empowerment and leadership development
International health emphasizing women’s reproductive health and HIV prevention in China; reproductive health indicators for rural areas of developing countries. Presently piloting tobacco substitution strategies in China
Planning and evaluation of patient- and community-based health education programs; international health; adherence to medical recommendations; STI/HIV-AIDS prevention; hypertension, diabetes, and tuberculosis control (adolescents and adults).
Nutrition research and intervention studies in Africa to improve growth, cognition, and school performance of Kenyan children and currently of HIV+ mothers and their children to slow disease progress and improve nutrition
Public health impact of disasters; program planning and evaluation; international health; health in the Latino community
The impact of stress on health, psychological response to natural and human perpetrated disasters; obesity prevention for students and personnel in the Los Angeles Unified School District; health promotion in minority communities, with particular emphasis on chronic disease prevention