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Public Health Practice Units

Public Health Practice Units are comprised of students, faculty and community partners dedicated to working with a particular population, community, or service sector. These interdisciplinary units are intended to enable constituents committed to public health practice to have a forum for advancing and advocating for policy changes internal to the school that would better support community-academic partnerships, establish meaningful contribution to impactful public health practice, support and coordinate our synergistic public health practice efforts, and enables the support and cultivation of public health practice funding efforts. 
In addition to the Community Health Practice Unit, the school is in the process of developing additional practice units relating to child, youth and family health equity, environmental health, and injury prevention.
Two people sit at a table engaged in discussion, one using a laptop while the other gestures with his hands. Papers and plastic cups are on the table, and other people are conversing in the background of a bright meeting room.

The Charge of Each Practice Unit

  • Co-create strategies for governance, communications and financial sustainability.
  • Create a pathway to recognizes external partnerships as integral members of the school.
  • Continue to build pathways for research and student mentoring.

Community-Engaged Researchers

Name Population(s) focus Content expertise Methodological expertise Current Community Engaged Research
Wael Al-Delaimy, MD, PhD, professor waldelaimy@health.ucsd.edu Immigrants and refugees; Vulnerable populations locally and globally; Indigenous populations; Low and middle-income populations International Health; Mental Health; Epidemiology; Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs; Environment; Climate Change; Capacity Building Biostatistics; Survey design; Epidemiology Community health eorker training program
Tala Al-Rousan, MD, MPH
assistant professor talrousan@health.ucsd.edu		 Immigrants and refugees; Unhoused or homeless population; Older adults Chronic disease; Health behavior and prevention Survey design Epidemiology; Clinical trials; Qualitative methods; Mixed methods; Clinical care Medication adherence behaviors, aging and Alzheimer's disease prevention, chronic disease management
Holly Baker Shakya, PhD
professor hshakya@health.ucsd.edu		 Adolescents, Communities in low resource countries; People in informal settlements Health behavior- social norms; Social networks; Social determinants Social network analysis The role of social norms, individual and collective agency in social behavior change research
Angela Bazzi, PhD, MPH, professor abazzi@health.ucsd.edu People who use drugs; People with substance use disorders Substance use; Infectious diseases Qualitative and mixed methods; Clinical trials of behavioral interventions and implementation strategies HIV prevention for people who use drugs (e.g., increasing HIV testing, access to PrEP in non-clinical settings)

Charles Berry, PhD, professor
ccberry@ucsd.edu

 Genomics Biostatistics
Rebecca Fielding-Miller, PhD, MSPH, associate professor rfieldingmiller@health.ucsd.edu Schools; Youth (high school students); Refugees; Childcare providers HIV and gender based violence; COVID-19; Mental health; Health disparities Youth participatory methods; Qualitative methods; Mixed methods; Survey design and analysis; Social epidemiology High school student oral history and environmental data collection in Imperial Beach; Developing childcare to address parent burnout post COVID-19; Violence prevention at the University of Eswatini; Biennial survey of refugee community needs and health outcomes
Richard Garfein, PhD, MPH, professor rgarfein@health.ucsd.edu College students; Commercial motor vehicle drivers; Populations at risk for TB; People who inject drugs; Indigenous peoples of Mexico Infectious diseases; Behavioral interventions; Digital health; Rapid diagnostic assay evaluation Epidemiology; Biostatistics; Quantiative methods; Mixed methods Testing student-driven solutions to improve food security at UC San Diego
Todd Gilmer, PhD, professor tgilmer@health.ucsd.edu Medicaid beneficiaries; Transitional age youth; Homeless persons Mental health services; Health insurance; Risk adjustment Health economics and services research Community capacity building program evaluation
Carlos Gould, PhD, assistant professor cagould@health.ucsd.edu Poor; Rural; Socioeconomically marginalized; Low and middle income countries Environmental health; Individual behavior change; Environmental exposure monitoring; Data science; Epidemiology; Biostatistics Environmental exposure monitoring; Data science; Epidemiology; Biostatistics; Survey design
Alexandra Heaney, PhD, assistant professor aheaney@health.ucsd.edu General population; Pregnant women and birth outcomes; Disabled populations Environmental health; Climate change and health Epidemiology; Qualitative methods; Time series analyses; Infectious disease modeling; Disease forecasting; Climate impact projections

Eric Hekler, PhD, professor
eheckler@ucsd.edu

 Families with children; Adults; Historically marginalized communities in San Diego County Health behavior and prevention; Mental health; Digital health; Collective impact; Community organizing Human-centered design; Community-centered design; Control systems engineering; Systems science; Systems thinking; Community-based participatory research; Collective impact; Community-driven research; Clinical trials; Qualitative methods; Mixed methods Food Justice Community-Driven Research and Methods Development
Linda Hill, MD, MPH, distinguished professor
llhill@health.ucsd.edu		 Drivers; Immigrants and refugees ('New Americans'); Asylum seekers Transportation safety; Displaced population health Clinical care Transportation Research and Education for Driving Safety (10 grants); community preventive medicine; Asylum seeker medical screening and stabilization program
Samantha Hurst, PhD, MA, professor shurst@health.ucsd.edu Tribal communities Health behavior and prevention; Cancer disparities Qualitative methods; Mixed methods; Survey design
Georgia Kayser, PhD, MALD, BS, assistant professor gkayser@health.ucsd.edu Children and adolescents; Adults; Immigrants and refugees; Unhoused or homeless populations Environmental health; Global health Survey design; Qualitative methods; Mixed methods; Econometrics Children and adolescent pesticide exposure in Ecuador; water, sanitation and hygiene and unhoused populations in California and Mexico
Camille Nebeker, EdD, MS, professor nebeker@health.ucsd.edu NHPI; Latino; Older Adults; Adults involved with digital/AI health research Ethical, legal/regulatory and social implications in technology enabled health research Survey design; Interview design; Qualitative methods; Mixed methods; Human centered design; Community-based health research Capacity building to increase research literacy and scientific integrity among people with limited formal training in research.
Sara McMenamin, PhD, MPH, associate professor smcmenamin@health.ucsd.edu None Health policy; Health insurance policy; Policy implementation; Tobacco control; Fertility preservation Policy analysis
Annie Nguyen, PhD, MPH, associate professor
aln031@health.ucsd.edu		 Older adults; People living with HIV; (formerly) Incarcerated individuals Health behavior; Mental health; Social relationships; Quality of life Qualitative methods; Mixed methods; Cross sectional designs Mental and physical health of older adults leaving prison and; Impact of health status on successful reintegration
Victoria D. Ojeda, PhD, MPH,
professor vojeda@health.ucsd.edu		 Racial/ethnic minorities; Justice-system impacted; People living with HIV or serious mental illness; Transitional-age youth Health service use; Mental health services; Reentry services Survey design; Mixed methods Reentry services for justice-involved adults
Lawrence Palinkas, PhD,
professor lapalinkas@health.ucsd.edu		 Children and adolescents; Immigrants and refugees Mental health services; Implementation science Qualitative methods; Mixed methods; Scale development and evaluation Electric vehicle adoption, local air quality, and respiratory health benefits in California
Heather Pines, PhD, MPH,
associate professor hpines@health.ucsd.edu		 Sexual and gender minorities; people who use drugs; sex workers HIV prevention and substance use Epidemiology HIV testing and HIV service engagement among people who use drugs
Borsika Rabin, PhD, PharmD, MPH, professor barabin@health.ucsd.edu Underserved communities; Immigrant and refugees; Communities of color; Veterans; Sexual and gender minorities Implementation science; Community-engaged research; Mental health; Cancer prevention and control; HIV prevention and control; COVID-19; Care coordination Implementation science methodology (theories, models, and frameworks, measures, strategies); Co-creation; Qualitative methods WEAVE: Increase equitable uptake of COVID-19 vaccine and other prevention behaviors
Ramya Rajagopalan, PhD,
assistant professor rmrajagopalan@ucsd.edu		 Adults; Individuals from racially or other minoritized backgrounds Racism and discrimination; Race in medicine; Public health genomics; Health behavior/prevention Qualitative methods; Mixed methods; Survey design
Rany Salem, PhD, MPH,
associate professor rsalem@health.ucsd.edu		 Adults; Racial/ethnic groups Genetic Epidemiology and Human Genetics Genetic epidemiology
Yuyan Shi, PhD, professor
yus001@ucsd.edu		 General population; youths; adults Drug policies Quantitative methods; Survey design; Experimental design
David Strong, PhD, professor dstrong@health.ucsd.edu Adults in low-income communities; Primary care patients; FQHCs Mental health; Health behavior and prevention; Tobacco treatment and prevention Clinical research; Survey design; Clinical trials; Quantitative methods; Scale development and evaluation Clinical trial of tobacco-related treatment and prevention
Jose Ricardo Suarez, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor jrsuarez@health.ucsd.edu Children to older adults; Hispanic/Latino; Ecuador; Agricultural communities Environmental health; Mental health; Inflammation; Endocrine; Respiratory Epidemiology; Longitudinal studies; Clinical trials; Community engaged research ESPINA study, secondary exposures to pesticides among children, adolescents and adults
Dennis Trinidad, PhD, MPH,
professor dtrinidad@health.ucsd.edu		 Racial/ethnic groups Tobacco use Epidemiology