"We Asked 6 Infectious Disease Experts What's Changed Since The Pandemic Began"
For the past three years, the LAist newsroom's public affairs show "AirTalk" — which airs weekdays on 89.3 FM — has dedicated hundreds of on-air hours to COVID-19 coverage. One of the ways AirTalk has been able to deliver this information is through a powerhouse roster of COVID-19 experts working on the frontlines who offered their time and answered your questions.
We brought the experts together for a special live event at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium, and asked them how their lives have personally changed, what they’d change about public messaging looking back and how we use what we’ve learned to prepare for the next global health crisis — and much more.
UCLA Fielding School of Public Health faculty Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, professor of epidemiology and community health sciences, and Dr. Kristen Choi, assistant professor of health policy and management, participated as panel experts.
Faculty Referenced by this Article

Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH, is a Professor-in-Residence with joint appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and Community Health Sciences



Dr. Michelle S. Keller is a health services researcher whose research focuses on the use and prescribing of high-risk medications.





Associate Professor for Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Health Sciences






Academic Personnel Coordinator/Assistant to the Chair




Dr. Hankinson is a Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and of EHS, and Chair of the Molecular Toxicology IDP








Professor of Community Health Sciences & Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Research

Assistant Director, MPH for Health Professionals Program


Dr. Joseph Davey is an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 20 years' experience leading research on HIV/STI services for women and children.




Assistant Dean for Research & Adjunct Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences





Director of Field Studies and Applied Professional Training

Dr. Ron Andersen is the Wasserman Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Departments of Health Policy and Management.


EMPH Academic Program Director with expertise in healthcare marketing, finance, and reproductive health policy, teaching in the EMPH, MPH, MHA program
Nationally recognized health services researcher and sociomedical scientist with 25+ years' experience in effectiveness and implementation research.



Director, Executive Programs in Health Policy and Management



Automated and accessible artificial intelligence methods and software for biomedical data science.





Industrial Hygiene & Analytical Chemistry


Assistant to the Chair & Academic Personnel Coordinator



