Faculty Honors & Service

Four UCLA Fielding School of Public Health scholars were listed among Clarivate’s 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list, compiled annually by analytics firm Clarivate: Dr. Sander Greenland, Dr. Ron Hays, Dr. Beate Ritz, and Dr. Marc Suchard. In addition, four FSPH scholars were listed among Clarivate’s 2024 Highly Cited Researchers list: Greenland, Hays, Suchard, and Dr. Carol Mangione.

Dr. Emily Abel received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for the History of Medicine.

Hamid Arabzadeh was appointed to the California Smoke Claims and Remediation Task Force.

Dr. Onyebuchi Arah received UCLA's 2026 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring.

Dr. Sudipto Banerjee received the Jerome Sacks Award for Outstanding Cross-Disciplinary Research from the National Institute of Statistical Sciences.

Dr. John Clemens received the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award.

Dr. Anne Coleman received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Secretariat Award and the California Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons’ Distinguished Service Award. She was also named one of the Los Angeles Business Journal Leaders of Influence in 2025 and 2026. In addition, she was recognized for her service to the National Eye Institute, the American Glaucoma Society Foundation, the NASEM Committee on Human Rights, the Cochrane Eyes and Vision (CEV) Advisory Board, UCLA Health, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the UCLA Division of Graduate Education, and Olive View Medical Center.

Dr. Lara Cushing serves on the Scientific Guidance Panel for the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program.

Dr. Xiaowu Dai received the Hellman Fellows Award and serves as Outreach Committee chair for the International Chinese Statistical Association, and as a board member of the Institute for Digital Research and Education.

Dr. Kayla de la Haye was elected a fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and served as vice president of the International Network for Social Network Analysis.

Dr. Rebecca Delafield was awarded the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Presidential Chair in Health Equity.

Dr. Julie Elginer was appointed to the Dental Hygiene Board of California, including serving as chair of the Legislation and Regulatory Committee, and was recognized by UCLA for her service at the state and local levels.

Dr. Susan Ettner was named to Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, and as executive director of the International Health Economics Association.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding delivered the 2025 Commencement keynote address at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Dr. Julio Frenk was honored with the Hispanic Health Leadership Award by the National Hispanic Health Foundation; he was also selected to deliver the 2026 Commencement keynote address at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Michael Galper was named to the board of the UniHealth Foundation.

Dr. Patricia Ganz was elected a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy and received the Visiting Scholar Award from the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics.

Dr. Alison Gemmill was named to the World Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on Maternal Mortality and Maternal Cause of Death Estimation.

Dr. Beth Glenn was named co-director of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Michele Guindani was elected president and member of the Executive Council, International Society for Bayesian Analysis; chair of the American Statistical Association’s Section on Bayesian Statistical Science; and a member of the International Statistical Institute. In addition, he was recognized for his service to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Statistical Institute, the International Prize in Statistics, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the American Psychiatric Association, and the journals Biometrics, Econometrics and Statistics, and Nature Medicine.

Dr. Felicia Hodge was selected as a member of the circle of Wisdom Keepers for the Native Research Network and serves as an editorial board member for the American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

Dr. Dvora Joseph Davey was appointed to the World Health Organization’s Regional Validation Committee on the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission (eMTCT) of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis B.

Dr. Olivia Jung was recognized for Best Theory to Practice Paper Award by the Academy of Management’s Health Care Management Division, and as among “Twenty Under 40” by the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Dr. Jian Li received the Mid-Career Award from the International Commission on Occupational Health’s Scientific Committee on Cardiology in Occupational Health. In addition, he was recognized for his service to the World Health Organization, the International Commission on Occupational Health, and the U.S. National Occupational Research Agenda.

Dr. Jingyi Jessica Li received a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Dr. Mark Litwin received the Wyland F. Leadbetter Award from the American Urological Association, New England Section, and both the Inclusive Excellence Trailblazer Award and the Cultural North Star Award from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He was also named an Honorary Member of the American Urological Association and received the Association’s John K. Lattimer Award.

Dr. Philip Massey was recognized with fellow status from the American Academy of Health Behavior in 2023, received the 2024 Mentorship Award from the academy, and served as president of the academy from 2025-2026.

Dr. Elizabeth Rose Mayeda received a U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Matthew Mimiaga received a Faculty Award for Excellence in Research on Diversity from the UCLA Academic Senate, was honored with Harvard University’s “Alumni Award of Merit,” and was recognized with a Congressional commendation for establishing a domestic and global center for LGBTQ+ public health at UCLA.

Dr. Jack Needleman was elected to the New York Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Michael Ong received a Field Research Leadership Excellence Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Research and Development, and served as Academic Senate Representative, University of California Regents Health Services Committee.

Dr. Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne served on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee that was created to improve how federal, state, and local governments conduct risk assessment during and after a public health crisis. The committee authored a report titled, “State of the Science and the Future of Cumulative Impact Assessment.”

Dr. Mark Peterson received the American Political Science Association Career Achievement Award in Health Politics and Policy.

Dr. Ninez Ponce was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and was selected as a faculty mentor in the UCLA Chancellor’s Fellowship program. In addition, she received the Gail Wilensky Award for Influence in U.S. Health Policy from AcademyHealth, the Inclusive Voices Award from the American Association of Public Opinion Research, the Elizabeth Fries Award from the CDC Foundation, and the Lester Breslow Lifetime Achievement Award from UCLA Fielding, and was recognized by the California Health Care Foundation and the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

Tom Priselac was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; received the Partners in Care Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025; and serves on the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics Advisory Board and the RAND Social and Economic Policy Advisory Board.

Dr. Anne Rimoin received the Society for Epidemiologic Research’s Roger Detels Distinguished Researcher Award in Infectious Disease Epidemiology. She served on the World Health Organization’s Global mpox Partnership Surveillance and Special Studies Working Group, the WHO Mpox partnership –Virus Evolution Working Group, and the WHO Mpox DRC Diagnostics Task Force. In addition, she was recognized for her service by UCLA, UCLA Fielding, UCLA Health, the National Academy of Sciences, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, the Maple Center, and the journal STAT. 

Dr. Beate Ritz received the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology’s John Goldsmith Award for Outstanding Contributions to Environmental Epidemiology.

Dr. Catherine Sugar was elected to serve as vice chair of the UCLA Academic Senate for the 2026-27 academic year. She will serve as chair in 2027-28.

Dr. Stephanie Taylor received a Career Scientist Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dr. Candace Tsai served as co-chair of the joint U.S.-E.U. NanoEHS Communities of Research Databases and Computational Mode Initiative.

Dr. Jennifer Wagman received a UCLA Global Research Award.

Dr. Yifang Zhu was recognized by the University of California for her research and community service during the recovery from the 2025 Los Angeles County wildfires.