Dr. Whitney N. Laster Pirtle is an Associate Professor of in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health, and affiliated faculty in the Department of Sociology 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
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
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
Dr. Bo-Kyung Elizabeth Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences. The goal of her research is to bridge the research-practice gap in service delivery models to address the mental, emotional, and behavioral health needs of youth in and at-risk for being involved in the juvenile justice system. Specifically, Dr. Kim is committed to research that seeks to reduce racial/ethnic disproportionality and disparities endemic to the juvenile justice system.
Education
- Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, CA
- PhD, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- MSW, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
- BA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Projects led by UCLA Fielding School of Public Health investigators have received grants through a partnership between the University of California and the state intended to spur research and real-world solutions that tackle the threat of climate change throughout California.
In the week after former President Donald J. Trump tweeted about "the Chinese virus," the number of coronavirus-related tweets with anti-Asian hashtags rose precipitously, according to a new study.
A new study finds that daily discipline rates in middle school escalate quickly in the first days of school and fluctuate throughout the year in predictable ways — often dipping ahead of breaks.
These escalations are most acutely felt by Black students, the data shows. By November, the Black student discipline rate is 10 times higher than it was at the beginning of the year and 50 times higher than the white student rate at the beginning of the year.
Two UCLA faculty members will speak as part of “COVID-19: The Battle to Save Black Lives” virtual town hall on Thursday, April 30, from 12 PM PDT to 1:30 PM PDT. The webinar will focus on solution-based discussion about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black communities.
As coronavirus spreads across the United States, so are reports of violence and discrimination against people of Asian descent. Reports of verbal and even physical attacks against Asian Americans in grocery stores, parking lots, and subways are on the rise, and officials predict it will get worse as the coronavirus continues its march across the country.
Researchers have long documented health disparities among people of different racial and ethnic groups. What is less known is how being a target of racism affects a person’s health. This can involve experiencing chronic stress stemming from being treated differently, being exposed to environmental hazards disproportionately located in racial or ethnic minority communities, or being denied access to quality medical care, housing, employment or other resources.