Pediatrics

Dr. Liwei Chen is an Associate Professor (tenured) in the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.  Dr. Chen’s research mainly focusses on identifying effective lifestyle approaches to prevent/management obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other cardiometabolic diseases.  She is also interested in maternal and child health and the life-course approach of chronic disease epidemiology.  Dr.

My research has focused on the potential of epigenetic epidemiology to elucidate the pathway by which adult disease susceptibility is influenced by environmental stimuli during critical periods of plasticity in fetal development. To explore multiple facets of this regulatory network, I have worked to develop expertise in the preprocessing and analysis of sequencing and microarray approaches to interrogate genetic variation, chromatin modifications, mRNA expression, and DNA methylation. In association with the post-doctoral molecular biologists in Dr.

Moira Inkelas, PhD, MPH, associate professor and assistant director at CHCFC, earned her doctorate in public policy at the RAND Graduate School and her MPH at UCLA, where she is currently assistant professor in residence in the School of Public Health. An integral member of the Center team, she is also assistant director of the Center’s Child and Family Health Program. She recently received funding from the California HealthCare Foundation to evaluate care coordination for children with special health care needs in California’s Medicaid-managed care plans.

Neal Halfon, MD, MPH is founding director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, and also directs the Child and Family Health Leadership and Training Program in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Dr. Halfon is professor of pediatrics in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; health policy and management in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health; and public policy in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.