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Berty Arreguin
Key words: social inequalities in health, type II diabetes; socioeconomic status, race, sex/gender, and aging; theory, mixed research methods.
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Berty Arreguin is a Mexican-American woman, a first-generation college graduate, and the first in her family to gain acceptance into a doctoral program. In past research, she analyzed variations in how people in California self-rate their health based on their socioeconomic status, education, race, sex, and age. She wants to expand this research to include chronic disease, specifically type II diabetes, in the San Joaquin Central Valley where she grew up. Although type II diabetes can affect many people, some groups face a higher risk—specifically Mexican-Americans women. She wants to investigate how this chronic disease affects the way Mexican-Americans women self-rate their health condition, and to understand whether they practice self-care after a diagnosis. If not, what prevents them from participating in self-care behaviors? She can be contacted at [email protected].
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Stephanie Arteaga
Keywords: Health equity, reproductive justice, mental health, qualitative methods, community-based methods, Latinx populations
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Stephanie Arteaga is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and a Research Associate with the Sexual Health and Reproductive Equity (SHARE) Program at the University of California, Berkeley. For nearly ten years, Stephanie has worked in health research with a focus on reproductive justice, health equity, and improving health outcomes for communities of color. Her interests include the impacts of structural racism and trauma on mental and reproductive health for BIPOC communities and engaging community in research to tell their own stories through qualitative methods. As a first generation Mexican American, Stephanie is particularly interested in how mental health and trauma impact reproductive decision-making among recently immigrated and early generation Latinas, and how government benefits program can best support people in realizing their reproductive desires. Stephanie earned an MPH in Maternal and Child Health at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health in 2016, and a BA in Sociology from San Francisco State University in 2013. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys baking, reading, and spending time with her family and dog, Lobo. Email: [email protected]
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Sutina Chou
Keywords: global health, international health organizations, biomedicine/biopolitics, politics of expertise and authority, qualitative and interpretative methods
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Sutina is a PhD student interested in studying the politics of expertise and authority associated with the predominance of biomedical approaches to global health. Her work draws on global historical sociology, medical sociology, and science and technology studies to investigate how biomedical knowledge and expertise in global health enable and are enabled by global power dynamics. Currently, they are focused on the character and aesthetics of information involved in discourses of (de)politicization within the World Health Organization. Sutina holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor of Arts and Science from McMaster University.
Email: [email protected]
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Chuck Cloniger
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Julia Cover
Key words: Harm Reduction, Disability Justice, Disability Studies, Substance Use, Mental Health, Public Health
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Julia Cover is a doctoral student at University of California San Francisco in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her work examines social perspectives on public health, specifically, how social processes like criminalization, medicalization and marginalization impact health care institutions. In response, she advocates for the implementation of community-based interventions and feminist care frameworks which incorporate the tenets of disability justice. Her work brings together disability justice theoretical frames with harm reduction philosophy to create more equitable responses to substance use by promoting structural analysis, bodily autonomy and community engagement. Her research interests include mental health, disability studies, queer theory, harm reduction, community-based research and anti-carceral responses to drug use. She received a BA in Anthropology and an MA in Women and Gender Studies from San Francisco State University. She works as a qualitative researcher at the Northern California Institute for Research and Education in health implementation for genetic testing and precision oncology.
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Jennifer Templeton Dunn, JD
Keywords: reproductive justice, abortion, contraception, respectful maternity care, health disparities, race/class/gender, intersectionality, and ethics.
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Jennifer Dunn, JD, is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, with a concurrent faculty appointment in UCSF’s Department of Family Health Care Nursing. Jennifer’s research and advocacy focus on contraception, abortion, and respectful maternity care. She is teaching faculty in the UCSF Global Health Sciences program, affiliated-faculty with the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium, and serves as the UC Hastings Faculty Ambassador to the UC Center on Women’s Health, Gender & Empowerment. Jennifer also serves as the Director of the California Alliance for Abortion Care. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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Thais Forneret
Keywords: qualitative methods, theory, race/class/gender, mental health
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Thais /ty-EES/ is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on how social forces affect the mental health of various social groups, particularly that of mixed-race individuals. Thais is interested in qualitative methods of research, especially ethnography and in-depth interviews, and sociological theory. Thais earned her Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Master's degree also in Sociology from the California State University, Sacramento
Website: https://thaisforneret.weebly.com/
Email: [email protected]
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Julia Gordon
Key Words: chronic disease, health equity, science and technology studies (STS), clinical research, sociology of embodiment, qualitative methods and discourse analysis
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Julia Gordon is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to UCSF, Julia worked for five years conducting pediatric clinical research at the Mount Sinai Hospital Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) center in New York, NY. As an author and researcher in science and technology studies (STS), pediatric gastroenterology, and genomics, Julia is interested in examining how sociocultural and political structures shape the construction of medical biotechnologies, education models, treatment practices, and patient decision making paradigms. Her research explores how constructs of gender, sexuality, and race shape subjective experiences of chronic disease embodiment, and how they are used by biomedical professionals when designing and interpreting biomedical research. At the heart of her academic and intellectual aspirations is a commitment to fight for equitable, anti-racist clinical research design and biotechnology access for BIPOC, queer, and trans patients with chronic disease. She hopes to collaborate with clinicians and pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies to design culturally inclusive study protocols that are more accessible to marginalized communities. Julia received her BA in Biology and Science in Society from Wesleyan University. She can be reached at [email protected].
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Carmen Green
Keywords: Birth equity, Black femme theory, Reproductive Justice applications, sexual & reproductive health, gerontology & aging, social policy
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Carmen Green is Vice President of Research & Strategy at National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC), creating solutions that optimize Black maternal and infant health through training, research, policy advocacy and community-centered collaboration. Her research priorities are in operationalizing anti-racist frameworks and Black feminist theory in healthcare, policy, and culture. She is also interested in gerontology and access to long term care and end of life services. She is a former Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, State Policy Fellow. Then, based at Louisiana Budget Project in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Carmen focused on health policy, long-term care support and predatory lending protections for low and moderate-income families. She created Hazel Green, LLC in 2017 to provide grant writing assistance for Black-owned community-based programs and family serving nonprofits. She has earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Wake Forest University, and master's degrees in maternal and child health and community health education from Tulane Universities. Carmen is a writer, reproductive justice activist and doula in training, whose continued commitment is to Black families experiencing wellness and joy.
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Paige Logan
Key words: reproductive justice, gender equity, Asian diasporas, caregiving, structural determinants of health, participatory and feminist methods
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Paige Logan is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She is currently a Policy and Advocacy Advisor at Ipas where she works with community members, advocates, and policymakers to create enabling environments that prioritize reproductive freedom and equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care. She has cross-movement advocacy experience at international, national, and state levels and hopes to pursue community-driven research that explores structural determinants of health to support economic, social, and cultural change. Her research interests include reproductive justice, Asian diaspora and identity, and caregiving, as well as qualitative and participatory methods. Paige has an MPH from UNC Chapel Hill and a BS in psychology from Davidson College. She can be reached at [email protected]
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Luis Gutierrez-Mock
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Abou Ibrahim-Biangoro
Keywords: Immigration, second-generation immigration, identity, race, social medicine, public health, mental health
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Abou Ibrahim-Biangoro is a PhD candidate at UCSF in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She identifies as a Cameroonian American, and her research focus is on the health (mental and physical) outcomes of second-generation immigrants. Her goal after finishing her doctoral degree is to utilize her research to build the foundation of improved healthcare for immigrants through a lens of social medicine. Her previous work was in nonprofit, educational program management, as well as coaching. Many of her experiences shaped her interest in mental health, mindfulness, and public health. She has done talks and lectures on these subjects and is always eager to learn more. Abou received her Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Davis, and completed her Master's in Public Health from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She can be reached at [email protected]. Her personal website is www.abouibrahim-biangoro.com
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Jhia Jackson
Keywords: youth, aging, chronic illness, communication practices, body politics
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Jhia’s research interests stem from her experiences as a professional dance artist, a commitment to life-long learning, and her personal experiences. Her work routinely addresses questions such as: How do we know what we know? How do we communicate what we know? How are we understood by others? She enjoys hands-on opportunities to work with and among the very populations that inspire her, and she looks forward to delving deeper into research and program development for these communities.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.jhiajackson.com
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Cristin Kearns, DDS, MBA
Key words: Commercial determinants of health, sociology of health professions, surveillance studies
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For the last decade, Cristin Kearns, DDS, MBA has been working to establish food industry documents research as a new area of investigation that transforms the way people think about sugar and the sugar industry’s role in promoting health inequities related to dental caries, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. In 2018, her research and document collecting efforts culminated in the launch of the UCSF Food Industry Documents Archive (FIDA), a collection of more than 600,000 sugar-industry related documents, which is part of the UCSF Industry Documents Library (IDL). The IDL is a digital archive of documents created by industries that influence public health. Originally established in 2002 to house the millions of documents publicly disclosed in litigation between US States and the seven major tobacco industry organizations, the collections have been expanded to include documents from the food, drug, chemical, and fossil fuel industries. UCSF has a long and continuing history of excellence in research on the commercial determinants of health built around the IDL. Dr. Kearns is part of a core group of faculty engaged in innovative documents-based analyses that have been influential in the public, academic, and policymaking spheres. As a PhD candidate in the UCSF Sociology program, Dr. Kearns will be exploring sugar industry influence on the health professions. She can be contacted at [email protected]
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Natalie Keller
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Selam Kidane
Keywords: race/ethnicity, immigrant mental health & health disparity, global health systems, qualitative methods
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Selam Kidane is an Eritrean-American, she is interested in further analyzing issues related to mental and physical health amongst the East African diaspora and communities of color. Her interests draw upon her work as a licensed clinical social worker. Selam currently works with dialysis patients who live with chronic kidney disease. Her work with patients of color and immigrants has helped her recognize the significant barriers that exist with navigating the healthcare system. She hopes her work can guide future policy and program development to better understand and serve immigrant populations and communities of color. Selam earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in ethnic studies from Saint Mary’s College of California and her master’s degree in social work from the University of Southern California. She can be reached at [email protected].
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Kate LaForge
Keywords: suicide, mental health, mental health crises, health services, social determinants of health, sociology of technology, qualitative methods
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Kate is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of California, San Francisco, specializing in qualitative and mixed methods research. Her dissertation uses survey methods and constructivist grounded theory to explore crisis text services for young adults experiencing suicidal ideation, delving into the intricate intersections of technology, health services, and questions of control and self-hood within mental health crisis services. Holding a master’s in public health from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University (2017), Kate has worked on research projects spanning suicide, mental health, health services, social determinants of health, and qualitative methods. Residing in Portland, Oregon, Kate is deeply engaged in her research community. She serves as a Social Determinants of Health Initiative Scholar at Portland State University and founded the Qualitative Special Interest Group within the International Network of Early Career Researchers in Suicide and Self-harm. Kate also actively contributes to telemental health crisis services as a volunteer crisis text counselor. Her research draws inspiration from the visual arts, literature, and society, and she is humbled and grateful to work alongside young adults to support them in building lives worth living.
Website: http://kate-laforge.squarespace.com/
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Maya Manian
Keywords: reproductive health care, health disparities, race/class/gender, intersectionality, law and society
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Maya Manian is a PhD student at the University of California San Francisco where she is pursuing a degree in Sociology. Prior to joining UCSF, she received a JD from Harvard Law School. She has been a Visiting Professor at American University Washington College of Law, Howard University School of Law, and University of California Berkeley School of Law, as well as a Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. Her legal research investigates the relationship between constitutional law, family law, and health care law, with a particular focus on access to reproductive health care. Her current research interest applies sociological theories to the study of laws regulating access to abortion. Her dissertation aims to understand how laws restricting access to abortion might constrain a wider range of women’s medical care. Through in-depth interviews with prenatal genetic counselors and physicians, she seeks to understand how reason-based abortion bans for genetic anomalies and gestational limits on abortion care might be reshaping prenatal care. The primary objective is to create a more nuanced understanding of whether and how abortion laws and policies impact women’s health care beyond the very significant harms of denying abortion care itself. A fuller understanding of the wider impact of abortion regulations could be used to encourage policymakers and the public to protect women’s health by rejecting further restrictions on access to abortion care.
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Kourtney Nham
Keywords:
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Kourtney Nham is a third-year doctoral candidate in the Sociology program, working with faculty mentor Dr. Janet Shim. She completed her undergrad at UCLA, where she majored in Human Biology and Society, with a minor in Asian American Studies.
Here at UCSF Kourtney’s research interest broadly centers on the relationship between militarism, imperialism, and health. For her dissertation, she aims to focus on toxic exposure and contamination on and around two former military bases in California – in particular, sites on these bases that have been reused/redeveloped in carceral capacities. In situating these sites in their material histories as well as attending to their reuses, they hope the project will provide insight into the longue durée of militarized state violence and the reproduction of multiple forms of toxicity and harm across spatial and temporal scales.
Kourtney will work with Graduate Dean Nicquet Blake as a Rosenberg-Hill Fellow, including support for the Responsible Conduct of Research course as well as carrying out event/program evaluation projects to strengthen Graduate Division's responsiveness to student feedback and needs. “I am also excited for the opportunity to think through how UCSF can better support and integrate social and population science students within the campus community,” remarked Kourtney.
In the future, Kourtney hopes to have a faculty or research position at an organization dedicated to advancing health equity. Outside of school and research, you can likely find Kourtney knitting or crocheting, reading in the park, or supporting decarceral and anti-deportation efforts at community organizations.
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Dimpho Orionzi
Keywords: Health equity and inequities, community based research methods and approaches, community institutional partnerships, systems change in healthcare, healthcare policy, data collection methods, mixed methods
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Dimpho’s family is from Uganda in East Africa, she was born in Lesotho in Southern Africa, and spent most of her life in the Minnesota. As a scholar, Dimpho is interested in process, and methods and approaches to reducing race and gender-based inequities. She is particularly interested in how social change happens at the institutional, community level, and at the intersection of the two. Dimpho is a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Scholar (HPRS).
Contact: [email protected]
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Esperanza Padilla
Keywords: Neurodiversity, intersectionality, mixed-research methods, health and aging, social policy, and ethics.
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Esperanza Padilla (she/her) is a first-generation college graduate and the granddaughter of migrant farmworkers from Mexico. As a re-entry student at UC Berkeley Esperanza began her investigation into the causes and consequences of masking/camouflaging for Autistic adults which earned her the citation award in Sociology upon her commencement. Her later-in-life diagnosis of Autism/ADHD influences her research passion for Neurodiversity which she seeks to couple with policy change.
Email: [email protected]
Website: espiology.com
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Giselle Pérez-Aguilar
Keywords: Latinx immigrant health, indigenous healing, racialized health inequities, mental health
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Giselle Pérez-Aguilar is a first-generation Mexicana Indigena doctoral student, inspired by her Boyle Heights roots, Zapotec ancestors, and educational endeavors at UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She was introduced to health research in 2010 and has worked closely with her mentors Dr. Nancy S. Wu, Dr. Alejandra Casillas, Dr. Rebecca Dudovitz, and other scholars, to address health inequities and deepen our understanding of adolescent substance abuse, adolescent mental health, and barriers to electronic health records for BIPOC communities. Giselle’s main interest lies in bridging indigenous healing practices with western mental health, using psychoanalytic approaches, spirituality, and environmental justice, to help undocumented women of color heal from complex trauma, reclaim their power, and become earth stewards. During her doctoral journey, Giselle hopes to use her clinical social work skills to give back to the communities that have uplifted her throughout the years and move health research in the direction of humanistic/liberation approaches. She currently collaborates with Dr. Stacy Torres and Dr. Jennifer James at UCSF and can be reached at [email protected]
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Diana Ponce
Keywords: Latino Health & Culture, Communities of Care, Health Equity and Policy, Physician Workforce, Sociology of Medical Education & Health Professions, Stroke Survivor Life Course & Experiences, Health & Aging, Patient-Provider Dynamics, Familial Dynamics & Caregiving, Mixed-Method Research, Digitial and Historical Archiving, and Community Based Partnership Research.
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Diana (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Sociology department at the University of California, San Francisco. They hold an M.A. in Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies from California State University, Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts in Chicana/o & Central American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, with duo-minors in Public Affairs and Labor & Workplace Studies.
With a rich background in Latino Health and Culture, Diana focuses on health equity, and health policy. Their research interests encompass a wide array of topics that are largely shaped by her lived experiences as a first-generation Mexican American, daughter of working- class garment workers, and granddaughter of Braceros. Her research aims are to build communities of care and advance health equity for communities of color. Her former research evaluated the U.S. physician workforce through an analysis of medical education pathways and the experience of minoritized students of color in medicine. Her current research at UCSF is focused on the continuity of care, access to care and post care available to Latine Stroke Survivors. This research aims to understand patient-provider relationships, patient-familial dynamics and their impacts on the life-course of stroke survivors.
She can be contacted at: [email protected]
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Adrienne Shatara, MPH
Keywords: Social determinants of health, trauma informed care, adverse childhood experiences, mental and behavioral healthcare, healthcare design research; maternal, child, and adolescent health (MCAH); children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN)
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Adrienne Shatara, MPH is a PhD student in the UCSF department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences, and a Research Manager at the Family Health Outcomes Project in the UCSF department of Family and Community Medicine. Her interests are around the Social Determinants of Health and Trauma Informed Care, and how these two concepts can be addressed together to inform policy and person-centered healthcare and mental healthcare design for vulnerable populations. She can be contacted at [email protected]
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Kylie Sloan
Keywords: cancer, health equity, person-centered care, substance use, tobacco
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Kylie Sloan, MSW, MPH is a sociology PhD candidate at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her research interests include tobacco, other substance use, and mental health issues experienced by people living with cancer and person-centered care delivery, especially for older adults. She is from Palo Alto, CA and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2013. After working as a yoga teacher for 7 years teaching therapeutic and trauma-informed yoga, she returned to school to pursue graduate degrees in social work and public health at the University of Southern California and graduated with a concentration in health services and policy in 2021. Prior to beginning the sociology doctoral program, she was a research specialist at USC Keck School of Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine and Geriatrics and Department of Population and Public Health Sciences. She collaborated on projects with USC Street Medicine about care delivery for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. As part of the Cancer Care Equity Lab, she engaged in multiple studies to advance cancer health equity, specifically within safety-net settings, using implementation science, qualitative, and mixed methods. Email: [email protected]
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Keridwyn Spiller
Keywords: maternal health care; patient experience; sex and gender; race; intersectionality; feminist theory; sexual and reproductive health; social inequalities in health
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Keridwyn (Keri) Spiller is a sociology doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Women's & Gender Studies from Texas A&M University in 2019. Her interests include maternal health care and labor and birth experience, with a focus on how gender, race, and other identities impact maternal health. Keridwyn is currently finishing a coauthored sociological paper connecting traumatic birth experiences and sexual assault, based on primary research of forced, coerced, and pressured medical procedures during labor and birth in The United States. She hopes to continue researching people’s experiences in maternal health care and work with individuals in the healthcare industry to develop solutions that can help people have more empowering, less life-threatening, and less traumatic, labor and birth experiences. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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Melissa Victor
Keywords: mental and behavioral healthcare, violence prevention, social determinants of health, racialized health inequities
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Melissa is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Prior to joining UCSF, she worked as a CDC ORISE Fellow to support the domestic COVID-19 Response where she provided technical assistance to Tribal Nations and Tribal-serving organizations. She is interested in violence prevention and mental health promotion, particularly amongst racial and ethnic minority populations. She hopes to examine how social determinants of health can mitigate the effects of intergenerational trauma and adversity. Melissa holds a BA in Sociology from Wheaton College in Massachusetts and an MPH from Emory University.
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Alex Wyse
Keywords: Abolition, Mass Incarceration, Substance Use Disorders, Drug Policy, Harm Reduction, Trauma Informed Care, Social Inequalities, Race, Gender
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Alex Wyse is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. His interests revolve around social inequalities, including but not limited to issues around incarceration, addiction, houselessness, the criminalization of mental health conditions, and how these experiences of inequality are shaped by identities like race and gender. His previous research experience includes qualitative work around the impacts of punitive measures and criminalization for people with diagnosed substance use disorders. Prior to UCSF, Alex worked for 6 years as a clinician in the substance use treatment field in both residential and outpatient co-occurring facilities. As a previously systems impacted individual, Alex’s sociological imagination is centered around a social justice and abolition oriented framework with focus on grassroots and community organizations being at the heart of larger systemic change.
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Noah Zazanis
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