Susan Cochran

By training, I am both a clinical psychologist and an epidemiologist. Reflecting that, my research program seeks to elucidate the mechanisms that moderate relationships among marginalizing social factors, behavior, and disease.  This work has centered on three broad areas: a) illuminating disparities that affect the health of sexual/gender and racial/ethnic minority populations, b) destigmatizing homosexuality and gender expression both domestically and internationally, and c) identifying key policy changes that may reduce the harmful effects of social marginalization.  

Over the years, I have been fortunate to receive several awards for my research, mentorship efforts, and contributions to the University including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Contribution to Research in Public Policy Award, the UCLA Chancellor’s Award for Special Contributions to a Fair and Open Academic Environment, and most recently the 2022 Impact Award from the UCLA Williams Institute for “groundbreaking foundational research showcasing health disparities among LGBT people.”   

Currently, I offer 3 courses in the Departments of SDS and Epi:

  • Applied Sampling (Statistics C155/CM248/Epi M216

  • Introduction to Python for Epidemiologists (Epi 410)

  • Methods of Scientific Communication (Epi 413)

Service is one of the great joys of being a UCLA professor.  Besides serving on various professional boards and committees, I was a member of the World Health Organization International Classification of Disease Working Group on the Classification of Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health (2011-2014) charged with developing the scientific rationale to remove from the ICD residual diagnoses linked to homosexuality. We were successful.  Beginning in 2015, my commitments twice took a sharp detour from a primary focus on research to full-time University service. I was elected Vice Chair, Chair, and Immediate Past Chair of the UCLA Division Academic Senate (2015-2018) and Vice Chair/Chair of the UC Systemwide Academic Senate (2021-2023).

Graduate Education


  • Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of California Los Angeles
  • M.S., Epidemiology, University of California Los Angeles

Areas of Interest


  • Psychosocial determinants of health-related behaviors.
  • Using novel machine learning methods to identify obscured features in administrative health data.

A few recent publications