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COAST brings together members from across the UCSF campus from departments and divisions such as Psychiatry, Medicine, Family & Community Medicine, Pediatric Medicine, Adolescent Medicine, Physiological Nursing, Family Health Care Nursing, Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, the Biomedical Sciences (BMS) Graduate Program, and the Neuroscience Graduate Program. COAST Researchers & Staff
Nancy E. Adler, PhD As director of the Center for Health and Community (CHC), Dr. Adler fosters interdisciplinary research, bridging social, clinical and basic sciences. Understanding the etiology and treatment of obesity requires such an interdisciplinary approach. Although not an identified obesity researcher, Dr. Adler was a pioneer in bringing together researchers and clinicians... Read more Elissa S. Epel, PhD Elissa S. Epel, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF. She is also a faculty member in the Health Psychology Postdoctoral Program, the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, and the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program. She is one of the founders of COAST, and is serving as the Director. She received a BA in... Read more Barbara A. Laraia, PhD, MPH, RD Dr. Laraia is a public health nutrition investigator with a special interest in the relationships between food policy, the food environment and health. She has expertise in qualitative methods, program evaluation, community-based research and nutritional epidemiology. Her research focuses on household food security status and and neighborhood effects on diet, weight... Read more Robert B. Baron, MD, MS A graduate of Princeton University (1971), Dr. Baron received a Masters Degree in Nutrition from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1974) and his M.D. Degree from UCSF (1978). He did his residency training in UCSF's Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program (1978-1981). A member of the UCSF faculty since 1981, Dr. Baron directed the UCSF Primary Care... Read more Nicole Bush, PhD Nicole (Nicki) Bush's research focuses on the manner in which early social contexts interface with individual differences to affect developmental trajectories across the life course. Her work aims to elucidate the sources for social disparities in health by examining the interplay of biology (physiology, genetics, epigenetics) and context (SES, parenting, neighborhoods) in... Read more Jyu-Lin Chen, PhD, RN Dr. Chen's program of research focuses on the impact of family and socio-cultural factors on Chinese and Chinese-American children’s health and healthy behaviors, especially overweight in school-age children. Her research focuses on child-centered and family-oriented methods from a bio-behavioral model. Variables investigated include physical activity, physical fitness... Read more Mary Dallman, PhD Mary Dallman, PhD, is a Professor Emerita of Physiology at UCSF and is one of the world experts on stress and metabolism, having pioneered the discoveries of how HPA axis regulation and metabolism are linked. She has deciphered the roles of stress induced glucocorticoid secretion on brain and feering behavior and the stress-damping role of pleasurable food intake on brain... Read more Jennifer Daubenmier, PhD Jennifer Daubenmier, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine in the Department of Medicine at UCSF. Her scientific interests include the effects of mind-body practices on eating behavior and stress-related chronic disease processes associated with obesity. Dr. Daubenmier received her doctorate training in Social Psychology... Read more Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH Dr. Fuentes-Afflick is a pediatrician and epidemiologist with expertise in health outcomes in Latinos, particularly the role of acculturation on health outcomes. She has conducted research studies focused on the role of acculturation on body mass outcomes in Latina women and their children. Dr. Fuentes-Afflick is also interested in the portrayal of body mass images in Latino... Read more Andrea Garber, PhD, RD Dr. Andrea Garber is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). She is a nutritionist with a PhD in Human and Clinical Nutrition fromt eh University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Registered Dietitian (RD) from UCSF. Read more Carl Grunfeld, MD, PhD Dr. Grunfeld is both a basic scientist and clinical investigator whose research has focused on metabolic effects of cytokines, infection, & inflammation, endocrine, metabolic & body composition disturbances in HIV/AIDS, wasting in AIDS and the metabolic changes due to antiretroviral therapy. His laboratory defines the physiology and molecular biology of these changes and then... Read more Frederick (Rick) Hecht Melvin B. Heyman, MD, MPH Dr. Heyman's research has been oriented towards clinical problems in pediatric patients with nutrition and/or gastroenterologic issues. He was one of the first investigators to reveal the importance of nutrition support in sickle cell anemia, helped to develop procedures in the diagnosis of hepatobiliary problems in infants, and has been actively pursuing novel treatments for... Read more Jessica Jones-Smith, PhD, MPH, RD Jessica Jones-Smith, PhD, MPH, RD is a nutrition epidemiologist who studies social and contextual correlates of nutrition-related disease and health disparities throughout the lifecourse. She has expertise in obesity and socioeconomic status among children and adults. She is interested in how socioeconomic status shapes the way that populations experience macro-level... Read more Alka M. Kanaya, MD Alka M. Kanaya, MD performs patient-oriented translational clinical research with a focus in obesity, type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. She investigates novel proteins produced by fat cells, called “adipocytokines”, to determine their association with future type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk. She has created a new South Asian cohort (called... Read more Cindy Leung, ScD, MPH Dr. Cindy Leung is a postdoctoral scholar in the Center for Health and Community in the School of Medicine at UCSF. She received her MPH from UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and her ScD in Nutrition and Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, with concentrations in public health nutrition and cardiovascular epidemiology. Her previous research... Read More. Robert H. Lustig, MD Dr. Lustig is a nationally-recognized authority in the field of neuroendocrinology, with a specific emphasis on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. He is currently investigating the contribution of biochemical, neural, hormonal, and genetic influences in the expression of the current obesity epidemic both in children and adults. He has defined a syndrome... Read more Kristine A. Madsen, MD, MPH Dr. Madsen is a pediatrician and research scientist with expertise in the design and evaluation of interventions related to pediatric obesity. She has directed clinic- and community-based studies aimed at increasing physical activity and reducing obesity among children of diverse backgrounds. She is currently conducting research related to Physical Education in schools and... Read more Laurel Mellin, MA, RD Laurel Mellin, MA, RD is an Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF. She is the founder of emotional brain training (EBT) a method of treating obesity and stress symptoms that equips individuals with tools based on an integration of neuroscience and developmental theory to decrease allostatic load as an emerging brain-based paradigm in... Read more Michele Mietus-Snyder, MD Dr. Michele Mietus-Snyder is a preventive pediatric cardiologist and Associate Professor in transition this year from the UCSF Departments of Pediatric Medicine and Physiological Nursing to George Washington University in Washington DC, where she has joined the Children's National Medical Center as the Co-Director of their Obesity Institute. She received her... Read more Aric A. Prather, PhD Dr. Prather is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF. His research focuses on complex interactions between psychological processes and sleep as they relate to physical and mental illness. With expertise in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), much of his research involves understanding how psychosocial factors affect the immune system, with emphasis on inflammatory... Read more Eli Puterman, PhD My research highlights the benefits of regular physical activity and social support to those experiencing chronic stress in their lives. My work suggests that the stress-disease link can possibly be broken when people maintain a healthy physical activity regimen and close relationships with others. I typically look prospectively, to test whether chronic stress over time shapes... Read more David H. Rehkopf, ScD, MPH Dr. Rehkopf's research seeks to better understand the importance of the influence of family economic resources on the development of adolescent and early adult obesity and the effects of obesity on economic resources in younger adults entering or transitioning within labor markets. Differentiating between the relative causal importance of these pathways has important... Read more Laura A. Schmidt, PhD, MSW, MPH Laura A. Schmidt, PhD, is a Professor of Health Policy in the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. She holds a joint appointment in the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine. Dr. Schmidt is also Co-Director of the Community Engagement and Health Policy Program for UCSF’s... Read more Hilary Seligman, MD, MAS Dr. Seligman’s research focuses on food insecurity (the inability to reliably afford safe and nutritious foods) and its influence on the development and management of chronic disease, particularly obesity and diabetes. Through a combination of epidemiologic study and primary data collection, her work evaluates mechanisms such as chronic stress, compensatory... Read more Saunak Sen, PhD The research of Saunak Sen, PhD, focuses on genetic mapping studies that seek to identify genetic variants conferring susceptibility to human disease including obesity and diabetes. Current projects include performing a genetic analysis of mouse growth curves on a high fat diet, and studying common genetic factors influencing asthma and obesity in Latino children. Read more Naomi E. Stotland, MD Dr. Stotland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF. Dr. Stotland's research interests include weight gain, nutrition, and obesity in pregnancy. She is developing and testing interventions to improve diet and exercise among Spanish-speaking prenatal patients. She is also a collaborator on... Read more Laurence Tecott, MD, PHD Our laboratory has a longstanding interest in the impact of genetic and psychological factors on the central nervous system regulation of feeding and energy balance. Our focus on the brain serotonin system led us to identify the serotonin 5-HT2C receptor as a key contributor to the suppression of appetite by this neurotransmitter system. We have characterized an... Read more A. Janet Tomiyama, PhD A. Janet Tomiyama, Ph.D., is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology with minors in Health and Quantitative Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles in June of 2009 and her B.A. in 2001 from Cornell University where she majored in Social, Personality, and... Read more Jeanne M. Tschann, PhD Dr. Tschann’s primary interest is the study of personal relationships and health-related outcomes among children and adolescents, particularly in Latino populations. In previous research, she examined how family relationships influence health risk behaviors, violence and victimization in Mexican American adolescents; and how sexual relationship dynamics are related to... Read more Joan Orrell-Valente, PhD Dr. Valente is currently an Assistant Professor at UCSF with a joint appointment in the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and The Children’s Center at Langley Porter, Department of Psychiatry. She is the Clinical Program Coordinator of the UCSF-LPPI Eating Disorders Program, and the Consulting Psychologist at the Weight Assessment for Teen and... Read more Christian Vaisse, MD, PhD The overall goal of this laboratory is to identify genetic defects implicated in the onset and progression of multi-factorial metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Our strategy combines human genetic approaches with molecular biology and animal studies. We are currently concentrating our research on the molecular biology and animal studies. We are currently... Read more James P. Warne, PhD James P. Warne is an associate specialist in the UCSF Diabetes Center. He received a BSc (hons) in biology from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (University of London), UK, and a PhD in pharmacology at Imperial College Faculty of Medicine. His research into the role of stress hormones (glucocorticoids) in energy balance and obesity that originated... Read more Janet Wojcicki, PhD, MPH Janet Wojcicki, PhD MPH is a fellow in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. She is an anthropologist and epidemiologist by training and previously completed a fellowship in HIV prevention and epidemiology at UCSF. Dr. Wojcicki has extensive research experience evaluating the relationship between sociocultural background, behavioral practices and... Read more Josh Woolley, MD, PhD Dr. Woolley received his Bachelor of Science degree from Brown University. Following graduation, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship at the Karalinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. During this year, he studied the neurophysiology of the isolated lamprey (a primitive fish) spinal cord. After returning to the United States, he received his MD and PhD in neuroscience from the... Read more Allison W. Xu, PhD Research in my laboratory focuses on understanding how body weight and glucose homeostasis are regulated by the central nervous system. Homeostatic control of body weight depends on the ability of the brain to sense and respond to changes in peripheral energy stores. Peripheral hormones and metabolic signals, such as leptin, insulin, glucocorticoids, and various GI... Read more Irene H. Yen, PhD, MPH Dr. Yen is a social epidemiologist with research expertise in survey design and development and qualitative research methods. Her research focuses on the social determinants of health, with emphasis on how neighborhood environment influences health behaviors and health status. She is the principal investigator of three projects, two that were recently completed, that... Read more Amber Benson Kim Coleman-Phox, MPH Bethany Hendrickson, MPH Samantha Schilf Stephanie Stoner Gwen Valencia, MS Holly Wing, MA Back to the Top
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