UCLA Fielding’s Dr. Michael Ong receives national award for his team’s work with veterans
Dr. Michael Ong, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, honored for leadership of veterans' health and food services project.
A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor has been recognized for his leadership of a team that integrated clinical care with a food bank program for underserved veterans in Los Angeles.
“I was very pleased to accept this award on behalf of all of my colleagues, and to our partners and supporters who have helped make this dream a reality for our veterans,” said Dr. Michael Ong, a physician and professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management. “This has been a tremendous collaboration, and it is truly an honor, both to have been part of making this project a reality, and for it to be recognized at the national level.”
Ong, also a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, serves as associate chief of staff for research and development with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. In that role, he worked through exceptions to VA policy so that the VA Los Angeles Food Hub could receive funding from Genentech through the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Research and Education Foundation (GLAVREF). which has received the “2026 Innovation and Best Practices Award” from the National Association of Veterans’ Research and Education Foundations (NAVREF). GLAVREF’s staff and Genentech are co-honorees with Ong, officials said.
““Each year these awards remind us that the work behind veterans' research is done by people whose names rarely appear on it,” said Rashi Romanoff, NAVREF’s chief executive officer, who spoke at NAVREF’s national conference Sept. 28 in Virginia, where the awards were presented. “This year's honorees built partnerships, solved problems, and served their communities in ways that will outlast any one of us.”
Food insecurity among American veterans is a significant and well-documented challenge, VA officials said. Researchers have estimated that the prevalence of food insecurity among veterans varies widely, depending on the criteria. In addition, higher rates of food insecurity have been reported among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts (27%), women veterans (28%), homeless and formerly homeless veterans (49 %) and veterans with serious mental illness (35%).
Operating in the region with the nation's highest concentration of food-insecure veterans, the Food Hub project at the at VA Greater Los Angeles campus in West Los Angeles pairs food access with integrated clinical care, Romanoff said. The project, which is supported by funding from the VA and philanthropic support, has served more than 75,000 pounds of food to veterans since it opened in April, 2025.
“Our goal with the Food Hub was simple: to assist veterans struggling with food insecurity by providing them with nutritious food, and then to piggyback on that to ensuring those who need clinical care receive it,” said Ong, who has been with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System since 2013. “This is very important, and there’s more to do, of course, but we have had tremendous success so far and we are looking forward to expanding what we can do with the program, especially to ensure we can continue to offer veterans more than just a meal.”
That combination of integrity, excellence, and community-focused healthcare is exactly why Ong is so well regarded by his peers, said Dr. Ninez Ponce, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at UCLA Fielding.
“Mike has dedicated his career to leadership with character, both as a clinician, an educator, and a scientist, and focused on a population that so often does not get the attention it deserves,” Ponce said. “This is an extremely well-deserved recognition by NAVREF of Dr. Ong and his team, and I am very pleased to see it.”
