UCLA Fielding’s Dr. Ninez Ponce inducted into the National Academy of Medicine
Dr. Ninez Ponce has been honored for her work building the California Health Interview Survey as a model for similar state efforts.
A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor has been inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, one of only 100 elected from around the world as part of the class of 2025.
One of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, election to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. New members are chosen by current members through a process that recognizes major contributions to the advancement of medical sciences, health care and public health.
UCLA Fielding’s Dr. Ninez Ponce, a professor and Fred W. & Pamela K. Wasserman Endowed chair in the Department of Health Policy and Management was elected in October of last year; her formal induction occurred this month at the NAM’s annual conference in Washington, DC.
“ ‘Science in the service of health’ is foundational for public health, and I was thrilled to be part of the 2025 class induction,” said Ponce, who also serves both as principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. “It’s one of the highest honors in my field and with this, comes the highest commitment to service. Health for everyone, everywhere!”
In announcing Ponce’s election, NAM noted her work “building the California Health Interview Survey as the model for state efforts to understand access to care and racial and ethnic inequities in health and health care.”
NAM added that Ponce’s research has “generated critical understanding of data equity to inform program and policy action addressing racial/ethnic health disparities, particularly for immigrant populations and Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations.”
One of the founders of CHIS nearly 25 years ago, Ponce led the rationale and implementation of Asian ethnic oversamples and the cultural and linguistic adaptation of the CHIS in Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog to capture participation from linguistically isolated communities that has served as a model for data collection among state and national agencies. CHIS is the largest population-based state health survey in the nation. Ponce received her PhD in Health Services from UCLA, a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, and a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley.
