Michael Prelip

About Dr. Prelip 

Dr. Prelip is a health promotion intervention scientist whose research primarily focuses on the health and wellness of under-resourced communities. He is an experienced community researcher and has led numerous initiatives involving community members, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and health care delivery systems to improve health. He has worked extensively in school-based and community-based food/nutrition and obesity related applied research projects. His projects have included local, statewide and global efforts (including projects in West Africa, Mexico and Armenia).

Over his career he has served as PI on multiple NIH- and CDC-funded research and training grants. Some examples of recent and ongoing projects include: 1) a CDC-sponsored rapid project to upcycle existing digital training programs into certificates to expand opportunities to improve the public health workforce’s ability to prepare and respond to disasters) 2) a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) funded R01 research project using system science approaches to understand the impact of both micro and macro-level community interventions on early childhood obesity; 3) the development and implementation of the Virtual Training Academy (VTA), a partnership with UCSF School of Medicine, and the California Department of Public Health, to train over 10,000 contact tracers and case investigators to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also designed and implemented NIH-funded research to alter the food environment in local communities and research to improve the quality of physical education instruction in public schools.

He has also served as PI for a number of training projects. He is currently the PI for the UCLA Charles R. Lewis Public Health Undergraduate Scholars Program, a CDC-funded summer intensive program that exposes undergraduate students to the field of public health. He is also partnering with an HBCU partner, Tougaloo College in Jackson Mississippi, on another summer intensive undergraduate program which engages Tougaloo students at UCLA in public health research. Most recently he served as one of the primary architects for the California Pathways into Public Health Initiative, a state-wide program to expand public health career opportunities with the goal of creating a well-trained and versatile public health workforce and he is serving as UCLA’s co-lead on this initiative.

Center Affiliations

Education

  • DPA
  • MPH
  • CHES
  • CPH

Related Tags

Honors, Publications, and Positions

  • Selected Honors

    Breslow Lifetime Achievement Alumni Hall of Fame, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health 

    Community Health Sciences Professor of the Year, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health 

    Community Based Leadership Award, Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Section of APHA

    Anne C. Rosenfield Distinguished Community Partnership Prize, UCLA

    Professor of the Year, UCLA Public Health Students Association

  • Selected Publications
    1. Roth, S., Gill, M., Chan-Golston A., Rice, L., Crespi, C., Koniak-Griffin, D. & Prelip, M. (2019). The Effects of a 2-Year Middle School Physical Education Program on Physical Activity and Its Determinants. Journal of Physical Activity & Health 16(8):608-615. PMCID: PMC6713588
    2. Ortega, A., Kemmick Pintor, J., Langellier, B., Vargas Bustamante, A., De Trinidad Young, M., Prelip, M., Alberto, C. & Wallace, S. (2020). Cardiovascular disease behavioral risk factors among Latinos by citizenship and documentation status. BMC Public Health 20(1):629.
    3. Golston, O., Prelip, M., Brickley, D. B., Cass, A., Chen, L., Dorian, A., Gandelman, A., Keh, C., Maher, A., Myrick, R., Reid, M. J., White, K., Willard-Grace, R., & Shafir, S. (2021). Establishment and evaluation of a large contact tracing and case investigation virtual training academy. American Journal of Public Health Nov;111(11):1934-1938.
    4. Nianogo, R.A., Mueller, M., Keeler, B., Krueger, L.K., Nhan, L.A., Nobari, T.Z., Crespi, C.M., Osgood, N., Kuo, T., Prelip, M.  (2022). Evaluating the impact of community interventions on childhood obesity in a low-income population in Los Angeles: An agent-based simulation study. Pediatric Obesity. Doi: 10.1111/ijpo.12954.
    5. Massey, P., Kearney, M., Rideau, A., Peterson, A., Gipson, J., Nianogo, R., Bornstein, M., Prelip, M. & Glik, D. (2022). Measuring impact of storyline engagement with an online health-focused serial drama: A digital evaluation study in West Africa. Journal of Global Health. May 14;12:04039 doi:10.7189/jogh.12.04039.
    6. Wang, M., Crespi, C., Jiang, L., Nobari, T., Roper-Fingerhut, M.A., Rauzon, S., Robles, B., Blocklin, M., Davoudi, M., Kuo, T., MacLeod, K., Seto, E., Whaley, S., & Prelip, M. (2018). Developing an Index of Dose of Exposure to Early Childhood Obesity Community Interventions.  Preventive Medicine 111(2018):135-141.
    7. Gill, M., Chan-Golston, A., Rice, L., Roth, S., Koniak-Griffin, D., Crespi, C., Cole, B., & Prelip, M. (2018). Correlates of Social Support and its Association with Physical Activity Among Young Adolescents. Health Education & Behavior 45(2):207-2016. PMCID: PMC5794636
    8. Albert, S., Langelier, B., Sharif, M., Chan-Golston, A., Prelip, M., Garcia, RE., Glik, D., Belin, T., Brookmeyer, R., & Ortega, A. (2017). A Corner Store Intervention to Improve Access to Fruits and Vegetables in Two Latino Communities. Public Health Nutrition 20(12):2259-2259. PMCID: PMC5561521
  • Selected Previously Held Positions

    Chair, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
    Associate Dean for Public Health Practice, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
    Director of Masters of Public Health for Health Professionals, CHS, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

News Features

November 2, 2022
U.S. CDC funding awarded to UCLA Fielding School of Public Health program that provides exposure, opportunities for young people committed to health equity

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have awarded $3 million in funding to the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health to strengthen the public health workforce

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Read Full Article