CHC Affiliate Faculty
Naomi Bardach, MD
Naomi Bardach, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics and Policy in the Department of Pediatrics and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California San Francisco. She is Vice Chair of Health Services Research in the Department of Pediatrics. In recognition of her passion and capacity for mentoring, she received the UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Mentoring Award for Associate Professors in 2020. Her research program is focused on improving the quality and equity of inpatient and outpatient pediatric care, with a foundation in implementation and dissemination science. She was co-investigator on two of the AHRQ-funded U18 Pediatric Quality Measurement Program (PQMP) grants to support development and testing of pediatric quality measures in asthma, sickle cell and mental health. As PI of an NICHD-funded R01, she is collecting reports on inpatient safety events from family and patients using a mobile phone interface, and making those reports rapidly available for safety improvements. Specific areas of interest for Dr. Bardach are: quality measurement; health equity in measurement and payment; and leveraging technology to integrate patient and caregiver voices into care.
Elizabeth George, MBBS
Elizabeth George, MBBS, is a pediatric and adult neuroradiologist with a clinical and research interest in imaging of fetal and pediatric neurodevelopment using MRI. Her research includes assessment of the effect of social determinants of health on fetal and pediatric brain growth, maturation, and neurodevelopmental outcomes in both health and disease processes. She has received numerous awards for her research, including the American Society of Neuroradiology's Scholar Award in 2020. George earned her medical degree from the All India Institute in Medical Sciences in New Delhi. She completed a residency in radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, followed by a fellowship in neuroradiology at UCSF.
Robert Hiatt, MD, PhD
Robert A. Hiatt, MD, PhD, is Professor and past Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF and the Associate Director for Population Science of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research interests include cancer epidemiology, especially breast cancer, cancer prevention and screening, health services and outcomes research, the social determinants of cancer, and environmental exposures in early development related to cancer. His central focus at UCSF has been on building a strong transdisciplinary research and training program in epidemiology with a focus on cancer population sciences. He is also an Adjunct Professor, Division of Epidemiology, University of California Berkeley and Adjunct Investigator at the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland. From 1998 to early 2003 he was the first Deputy Director of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute, where he oversaw cancer research in epidemiology and genetics, surveillance, and health services and outcomes research. He is a past president of the American College of Epidemiology and the American Society for Preventive Oncology. Currently he leads the All of Us Precision Health Program at UCSF and directs the San Francisco Cancer Initiative (SF CAN).
Jessica Hua, PhD
Jessica Hua, PhD, is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of California San Francisco and San Francisco VA Health Care System. Drawing from research in basic science and clinical psychopathology, Dr. Hua's program of research aims to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms of schizophrenia and their contributions to the development and maintenance of psychosis. She specializes in using neuroimaging, behavioral, and physiological techniques to probe neural and behavioral processes across the illness course, from individuals at clinical high-risk for developing psychosis to those with chronic presentations. Dr. Hua's long-term goal is to develop a multimodal program of clinical neuroscience research that 1) improves psychosis risk prediction and 2) contributes to the advancement of mechanistically-informed interventions for individuals with psychosis and other serious mental illnesses. Dr. Hua is also a licensed and board certified clinical psychologist providing evidence-based care to Veterans at the San Francisco VA Health Care System.
Alicia Lieberman, PhD
Alicia Lieberman, PhD, is the Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair in Infant Mental Health and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs at the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the Child Trauma Research Program. She is a clinical consultant with the San Francisco Human Services Agency. She is active in major national organizations involved with mental health in infancy and early childhood. She is past-president of the board of directors of Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, and on the Professional Advisory Board of the Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute. She has served on peer review panels of the National Institute of Mental Health, is on the Board of Trustees of the Irving Harris Foundation, and consults with the Miriam and Peter Haas Foundation on early childhood education for Palestinian-Israeli children.
Born and raised in Paraguay, she received her BA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. This background informs her work on behalf of children and families from diverse ethnic and cultural origins, with primary emphasis on the experiences of Latinos in the United States.
Dr. Lieberman is currently the director of the Early Trauma Treatment Network (ETTN), a collaborative of four university sites that include the UCSF/SFGH Child Trauma Research Program, Boston Medical Center, Louisiana State University Medical Center, and Tulane University. ETTN is funded by the federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, a 40-site national initiative that has the mission of increasing the access and quality of services for children exposed to trauma in the United States. Her major interests include infant mental health, disorders of attachment, early trauma treatment outcome research, and mental health service disparities for underserved and minority children and families. Her current research involves treatment outcome evaluation of the efficacy of child-parent psychotherapy with trauma-exposed children aged birth to six and with pregnant women involved in domestic violence. As a trilingual, tricultural Jewish Latina, she has a special interest in cultural issues involving child development, child rearing, and child mental health. She lectures extensively on these topics nationally and internationally.
Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS
Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, is the Vice Dean for Faculty & Academic Affairs at UCSF School of Medicine. She is also a Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Epidemiology & Biostatistics. Dr. Mangurian is also the Director of the UCSF ARCHES Program.
Dr. Mangurian is a community psychiatrist whose research program focuses on improving health care of people with severe mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder), particularly among economically disadvantaged populations. Dr. Mangurian has a successful track record in implementation in the public sector, most notably being her work as a Special Coordinator for the Medical Director of the New York State Office of Mental Health to implement health screening of 15,000 outpatients served within the New York State public mental health system. She has a diverse research funding portfolio, with a long track record of federal, foundation, and industry grants as well as state and county contracts and philanthropic support.
Melanie Molina, MD
Melanie Molina, MD, is an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Social Emergency Medicine and Health Equity Section with the Department of Emergency Medicine. She holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Clinical Informatics and Digital Transformation and is Affiliate Faculty at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and the UCSF Action Research Center for Health Equity. As a practicing emergency physician at San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF Medical Center, Dr. Molina’s research focuses on reducing healthcare disparities and improving emergency care for vulnerable populations. She leverages technology and electronic health record-based interventions to integrate social and clinical care in emergency settings. Her work has been published in leading journals including NEJM Evidence, JAMA Internal Medicine, and JAMA Network Open. Dr. Molina completed her undergraduate education at The University of Texas at Austin, graduating summa cum laude with degrees in Biology and Hispanic Studies. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her emergency medicine (EM) residency at Mass General Brigham. Prior to joining UCSF faculty, she enhanced her scientific expertise through the National Clinician Scholars Program and earned a Master in Advanced Studies from UCSF’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Currently, Dr. Molina leads several foundation- and NIH-funded projects developing clinical decision support tools to address social needs and opioid use disorder. She has successfully led multi-center clinical trials and collaborates with interdisciplinary research teams to improve healthcare access.
Aoife O'Donovan, PhD
Aoife O'Donovan, PhD, completed undergraduate and graduate programs at University College Cork, the National University of Ireland, Galway, and University College Dublin in her native Ireland before coming to UCSF for graduate and postdoctoral training. In her current role as Professor In Residence in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Weill Institute for Neurosciences and Research Psychologist in the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, she runs a laboratory dedicated to uncovering the mechanisms linking psychological stress exposure with ill health. Her lab conducts studies that determine both the effects of psychological stressors on the immune system, and the health consequences of stressor-related immune dysfunction. Many of their findings converge on altered inflammatory activity as a central mechanism linking stressor exposure with increased risk for mental and physical health problems. The lab is particularly focused on traumatic stressors, which are stressors involving threat of death, serious injury, or sexual violence, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The ultimate goal is to identify and develop interventions that can reduce the long-term negative impact of psychological stressors. Studies in the lab are currently investigating the potential of both digital app-based and pharmacological interventions. Outside of the lab, Aoife enjoys hiking, biking and skiing in the Bay Area and trips to Ireland.
Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD
Kathryn A. Phillips, PhD, is Professor of Health Economics and Health Services Research in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at UCSF. A leader in the application of new technologies to improve healthcare, she is the Founding Director of the UCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Precision Medicine (TRANSPERS). She is a core faculty member in the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is affiliated with the Institute for Human Genetics, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Baker Computational Health Sciences Institute, and Global Health Sciences. She is the Founding Editor-in-Chief, Health Affairs Scholar: Emerging and Global Health Policy.
Kathryn focuses on the value of new technologies and how to most effectively and efficiently implement them into health care. Her core specialty is precision medicine — a new era of healthcare where medical interventions can be tailored to individual patients based on their unique genetic make-up. Her work spans multiple disciplines, including basic, clinical and social sciences, and brings together leading experts in academia, industry, healthcare, payers, and government. Her pioneering research on the application of health services research to personalized medicine has revealed insights on how to bridge the gap between emerging technologies and their use in the clinic
Laura Schmidt, MSW, MPH, PhD
Laura A. Schmidt, PhD, MSW, MPH, is a professor in the UCSF School of Medicine. She has dedicated her career to intervening on the social determinants of health and to understanding how lifestyle risk factors, such as alcohol and poor diet, influence chronic disease and health inequality. 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 Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She received her PhD training in sociology at UC Berkeley and, while there, completed doctoral coursework in public health. She also holds a master's degree in clinical social work.
Joanne Spetz, PhD
Joanne Spetz, PhD, is Director and Brenda and Jeffrey L. Kang Presidential Chair in Health Care Financing at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS), University of California San Francisco. IHPS is a 50-year-old organization that conducts innovative research to support, guide, and enable policymakers, communities, and clinicians in making evidence-informed decisions that improve health and health care for individuals and families
Dr. Spetz’s research focuses on the economics of the health care workforce, organization of health care services, and quality of health care. She directs the federally funded UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care, which generates evidence to ensure an adequate workforce to provide patient-centered care to individuals with long-term care needs across the lifespan. She is an internationally known expert on the nursing workforce, leading studies of nurse supply, demand, education, earnings, and contributions to the quality of care across healthcare settings.
Alexandra (Allie) Sullivan, PhD
Allie Sullivan, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a child clinical psychologist specializing in trauma-informed, evidence-based interventions for families exposed to stress. She also serves as Research Director of the Child Trauma Research Program.
Dr. Sullivan’s work integrates developmental psychopathology, intervention science, and biobehavioral approaches to understand and disrupt mechanisms through which adversity is transmitted across generations. She investigates how supporting caregivers (via behavioral, psychosocial, or biologically informed strategies) can buffer children from the impacts of early life and intergenerational adversity. Her research includes parent-child intervention studies and large longitudinal cohorts, with the goal of promoting parent and child health.
Janet Wojcicki, MPH, PhD
Janet Wojcicki, MD, PhD, is an anthropologist and epidemiologist with an interest in early life risk factors for the development of obesity in high-risk populations. Specifically, she is interested in maternal exposures in pregnancy and early-life feeding decisions that can increase risk for obesity by age five. Additionally, she has international expertise, particularly in sub-Saharan African populations, in evaluating the relationship between nutritional factors and HIV and HHV-8 infection and progression.
Dr. Wojcicki’s research currently focuses on the evaluation of early life risk factors for obesity. She recruited a mother-child Latino cohort with support from the NIH and CDHNF to evaluate the relationship between exposure to maternal prenatal and postnatal depression and risk for obesity at age 2, 5 and 7. In addition to obesity, Dr. Wojcicki is also interested in how pediatric undernutrition can contribute to HIV progression and infection with HHV-8. She is a collaborator on a long-term cohort study in Lusaka, Zambia.