UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, co-authored research that found clinical outcomes improve when patients and surgeon's ethnicity match.
The study found improved metrics in a subset of patients; when Hispanic surgeons operated on Hispanic patients, for example, it led to reduced length of stay, by half a day, and fewer readmissions to the hospital.
A team led by UCLA Fielding School of Public Health (UCLA Fielding) researchers has received a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve risk assessment for those suffering from diabetes and related complications.
Dr. Whitney N. Laster Pirtle is an Associate Professor of in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA. Dr. Pirtle is trained as a critical race sociologist with interdisciplinary subject area expertise in race, racism, and anti-Blackness; health disparities and health equity; Black feminist sociology and praxis; and mixed methodologies.
Education
- PhD, Sociology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- MS, Sociology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- BS, Sociology, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI, USA
UCLA Fielding School of Public Health alum Dr. Fola May was interviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered" about health disparity research.
Assistant Professor Rebecca Delafield’s work primarily focuses on understanding and assessing health outcomes and health care experiences of Pasifika people. She is trained in community-based research approaches and maternal and child health. Her research examines socio-cultural, psychosocial, medical, and biological factors that influence health care quality and health outcomes, with a particular attention to pregnancy and the perinatal period.
Education
- PhD, Public Health - Community-based and Translational Research, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI
- MPH, Maternal & Child Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
- BA, Sociology, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN
Dr. Yoshira “Yoshi” Ornelas Van Horne is an exposure scientist and environmental justice scholar. She is the assistant director of Agents of Change in Environmental Justice Fellowship, which trains early career scientists in science communications.
Education
- PhD, Environmental Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
- MS, Environmental Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
- BS, Microbiology University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
In an unprecedented collective scientific effort to understand the short- and long-term health impacts of wildfires, researchers from four universities have launched a 10-year study of the Los Angeles fires. The wildfires that began in early January 2025 killed 29 people, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and exposed millions to toxic smoke.
The research aims to evaluate which pollutants are present, at what levels, and where, and to assess the respiratory, neurological, cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune system impacts of the wildfires.
Survivors of wildfires like those burning across Los Angeles can experience mental health issues long after a blaze is out.
Differences in race and ethnicity, income level, and sexual orientation and gender identity continued in 2023 to be linked to differences in equitable experiences across a range of health-related issues affecting Californians, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research’s latest California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
Born in Lima, Peru, Dr. Angie Denisse Otiniano Verissimo is an Associate Professor of Teaching at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health where she earned her PhD and MPH. She completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Education
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Integrated Substance Abuse Programs; UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
- PhD, Community Health Sciences; UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
- MPH, Community Health Sciences; UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
- BA, Biology & Spanish; University of Redlands, Redlands, CA