UCLA Fielding School of Public Health doctoral student Rafik Wahbi receives E. Richard Brown fellowship
Rafik Wahbi, a student in the doctoral (PhD) program, has received the E. Richard Brown Social Justice Fellowship.
A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health doctoral student has been recognized for academic excellence and his research work at the school, ranked as among the top public health graduate schools in the United States.
Rafik Wahbi, a student in the doctoral (PhD) program specializing in community health sciences, has received the E. Richard Brown Social Justice Fellowship, established in honor of the late faculty member Dr. E. Richard Brown, which supports students who conduct research into universal health insurance for all living in the U.S. The award, which includes a stipend, stems from Wahbi’s achievements at UCLA Fielding, including a 3.9 GPA and multiple research projects and student service.
“My research interests lie at the intersection of incarceration, substance use, and structural racism,” said Wahbi, who earned his master of public health at Boston University (’20), his bachelor of science at the University of California, Davis (’15), and an associate of science degree at Pasadena City College (’13). “The intent is to directly address critical gaps in healthcare access for incarcerated people and those on probation, and parole, who are reentering society often with traumas from their incarceration, a group too often excluded from traditional systems of care.”
Wahbi’s dissertation - “Healing with Renewed Purpose” How Peer Support Specialists Transform Public Health and Public Safety” - is an evaluation of a Los Angeles peer-based prison reentry program, highlights innovative, community-based approaches to supporting individuals in recovery and reentry. It is being published in 2026.
“Public health is not something that is prescribed by experts and professionals, but is a collective effort organized at the grassroots by everyday people, to build a safer and healthier society,” said Wahbi, who considers the San Gabriel Valley his hometown.
Wahbi has worked as an instructor, teaching assistant, and/or researcher at UC Davis, Boston, and UCLA, including in UCLA’s Carceral Ecologies Lab. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, in Los Angeles.
“Rafik’s work embodies the very spirit of this award, centering equity, advancing access, and partnering with communities to reimagine systems of care,” said UCLA Fielding’s Dr. Angie Denisse Otiniano Verissimo, associate professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences. “Having been a student of Dr. Brown and witnessing the profound impact of educators committed to social justice, I can say with confidence that Rafik will have that same lasting impact on his future students.”
