Alice Kuo

Dr. Alice Kuo is a UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of health policy and management, and associate professor of internal medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  She is also chief of the Medicine-Pediatrics Section and director of the Medicine-Pediatrics Comprehensive Care Center. Her research interests are mainly in early childhood, and she has published in the areas of developmental screening and services, early literacy practices, cognitive and language development in young minority children, hearing screening in early childhood, services for children with autism, and mental health services for children. 

In addition to her research, Dr. Kuo is heavily involved in educational programs at many levels, from high school to post-graduate fellows. As the co-director of the Training Core for the NHLBI-funded Center for Population Health and Health Disparities, she works with disadvantaged high school students in East Los Angeles, focusing on reduction of cardiovascular risk factors, community capacity-building and career mentoring. She is the director of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB)-funded Pathways for Students into Health Professions for disadvantaged undergraduate students interested in public health and health professional careers. She also teaches the Foundations of Maternal and Child Health course at the UCLA School of Public Health each year. In October 2012, Dr. Kuo joined the NICHD-funded Center for Autism Research and Treatment as its Director of Research Training and Education. At the David Geffen School of Medicine, she is director of the Systems of Care Pathway, a longitudinal program for medical students to learn about the intersection of health care systems and clinical practice. At the post-graduate level, Dr. Kuo is the program director of the UCLA Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Program. 

At the national level, Dr. Kuo is currently a member of the executive committee of the Council of Community Pediatrics in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). She was the co-chair of the Community Pediatrics Training Initiative Program Advisory Committee at the AAP from 2005-20008. She was the co-chair of the Advocacy Training Special Interest Group in the Academic Pediatrics Association (APA) from 2004-2007, and region co-chair of the APA from 2007-2010. 

Clinically, Dr. Kuo sees primary care patients at the Medicine-Pediatrics Comprehensive Care Center in Santa Monica, the first ambulatory practice at UCLA with extended hours in the evenings and on weekends and holidays. She also precepts residents and students at the Simms-Mann Health Center in Santa Monica. She also directs the School Function Program at the Venice Family Clinic, a primary care-based model for addressing learning issues and mental health problems in children. 

Dr. Kuo received a B.A. in biology from Harvard University, her M.D. from UCLA, and her Ph.D. in educational psychology with a focus on early childhood and special education from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. 

Selected Courses

• Health Policy and Management 140: Foundations of Maternal and Child Health 

Selected Publications

• Kuo AA and Slavin SJ. (1999). Clerkship curricular reform based on the APA-COMSEP guidelines: does it make a difference? Pediatrics 103: 898-901. 
• Russ SA, Kuo AA, Poulakis Z, Barker M, Rickards F, Saunders K, Jarman FC, Wake M and Oberklaid F. (2004). Qualitative analysis of parents’ experience with early detection of hearing loss. Arch Dis Child 89:353-8. 
• Kuo AA, Franke TM, Regalado M, and Halfon N. (2004). Parent report of reading to young children. Pediatrics 113: 1944-51. 
• Inkelas M, Smith KA, Kuo AA, Rudolph L and Igdaloff S. (2005). Health care access for children with special health care needs in California. Matern Child Health J 9: S109-16. 
• Kuo AA, Inkelas M, Lotstein DS, Samson KM, Schor EL, and Halfon N. (2006). Rethinking well-child care in the U.S.: an international comparison. Pediatrics 118: 1692-1702. 
• Inkelas M, Raghavan R, Larson K, Kuo AA, and Ortega AN. (2007). Unmet mental health need and access to services for children with special health care needs and their families, Amb Pediatr, 7:431-8. 
• Perez VH, Fang H, Inkelas M, Kuo AA and Ortega AN. (2009). Access to and utilization of health care by subgroups of Latino children, Medical Care 47:695-699. 
• Ortega AN, Horwitz SM, Fang H, Kuo AA, Wallace SP and Inkelas M. (2009). Documentation status and parental concerns about development in young U.S. children of Mexican origin, Academic Pediatrics 9: 278-82. 
• Kuo AA, Inkelas M, Maidenberg M, Lotstein DS, Samson KM and Halfon N. (2009). Pediatricians’ roles in the provision of developmental services: an international study. J Dev Beh Peds 30: 331-9. 
• Fuller B, Bein E, Bridges M, Jang H, Rabe-Hesketh S, Halfon N and Kuo AA. (2009). The development of Latino toddlers: At risk or immigrant paradox? Mat Child Hlth J 13:755-768. 
• Fuller B, Bein E, Bridges M, Jang H, Rabe-Hesketh S, Halfon N and Kuo AA. (2010). Maternal practices which influence the health and cognitive development of Latino infants. Pediatrics 125:e324-e332. 
• Feldman J, Ortega AN, Mitchell DK, Kuo AA and Canino G. (2010). Child and family psychiatric and psychological factors associated with child physical health problems: results from the Boricua study. J Nervous Mental Dis 198:272-9. 
• Yeganeh N, Curtis D and Kuo AA. (2010). Factors influencing HPV vaccination status and parental attitudes towards vaccine mandates. Vaccine 28:4186-91.          
• Guerrero AD, Garro N, Chang JT and Kuo AA.  (2010). An update on developmental assessments in the pediatric office: has anything changed after two policy statements? Academic Pediatrics  10:400-4. 
• Lotstein DS, Kuo AA, Strickland B and Tait F.  (2010). Special concerns around transition: are there racial and ethnic disparities?  Pediatrics 126:S129-36.