Azzama Alia

Dalia Chowdhury, Ph.D., CRC, CADC, LPC

Mental and Physical Disability, Gender, and Violence; Trauma and addiction; Suicide and Trauma informed Healthcare; Gender and Pedagogy; Psychometry.

Paula Heller Garland, M.S., LCDC

Julia Heck, PhD, MPH

My focus is lifecourse epidemiology, with particular interests in early life exposures and later health outcomes. My major research focuses on the epidemiology of birth outcomes and childhood cancers within cohorts of children from the United States, Scandinavia, and Taiwan, with an emphasis on environmental and occupational causes of cancer as well as maternal and paternal health, pharmaceutical use, and the perinatal environment.

Birth Outcomes among Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency Families: This project uses a large cohort of 1.7 million Danish births to examine the prevalence of preterm birth, low birthweight, and other adverse birth outcomes among the offspring of mothers and fathers with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. We will additionally look at the prevalence of pregnancy complications in mothers with the condition. For this project I am working with colleagues at the Danish Cancer Society and UCLA.

Ambient Air Toxics and Breast Cancer Risk: This study uses data from the Multiethnic Cohort to examine residential exposure to industrial and traffic-related air pollution in relation to breast cancer risk. For this I am collaborating with UCSF, USC, The University of Hawaii-Manoa, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, and Oregon State University.

Childhood Cancer in Relation to Parental Occupational Exposure to Chemical and Other Agents: I lead the Parental Occupation and Childhood Cancer (POCC) Study, an international effort that integrates data from large prospective databases in Denmark with cancer registry data. The overarching objective of this study is to address hypotheses of exposure to environmental agents in childhood cancer etiology, using validated job-exposure matrices (JEMs) developed by Danish occupational hygienists. This project includes over 6000 cancer cases, and we are able to additionally use data from the Danish Medical Births Registry to address questions of gestational risk factors.

Maternal Comorbidities, Prescription drug use in pregnancy, and Childhood cancer (COMPAC): I am PI of a large-scale study of childhood cancer among Danish children which utilizes information from large medical and pharmaceutical databases to examine the risk of childhood cancers from maternal comorbid health conditions and prescription drug use during pregnancy..

Environmental Health Tracking of Childhood Cancers: Our group has several projects which use California Cancer Registry records of 11,000 childhood cancer cases, linked to California birth records, to examine the risk of cancer related to perinatal exposure to traffic-related air pollution, air toxics, pesticides, and other environmental as well as gestational risk factors. A new NIH-funded study within this project examines exposure to industrial pollution emissions in relation to risk for pediatric cancers.

Metabolomic Profiling of Retinoblastoma: This project conduct broad metabolomic profiling of newborn blood spots among retinoblastoma cases and controls. We aim to examine whether nicotine and cotinine differ in blood spots between retinoblastoma cases and controls, and also to examine a variety of metabolites in relation to cancer risk. Recently we received funding from NIH to conduct a metabolome-wide association study (MWAS) within this cohort.

Childhood Cancer in Taiwan: Along with colleagues at National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, we are investigating maternal health and pharmaceutical use in risk for childhood cancers and birth outcomes. We are using data from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Database. This grant is funded by the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.

Benedict Jikong (DHA)

Naomi Meier, DrPH, MS

Elias Mpofu, Ph.D., CRC

My research interests coalesce around sustainable community-oriented health services; - their design, implementation and evaluation for health promotive supports across the lifespan, with an increasing emphasis on community living and participation outcomes for health older adults aging with or into disability

Selected Publications:

The following publications were co-authored with doctoral student Renata Komalasari and peer in RHS - associate professor Gayle Prybutok. Dr. Mpofu and Dr. Prybutok feel that it is their obligation to teach doctoral students how to publish as part of their education.

Komalasari, R., Mpofu, E., Prybutok, G., and Ingman, S. (2022). Daily Living Subjective Cognitive Decline Indicators in Older Adults with Depressive Symptoms: A Scoping Review and Categorization Using Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). Healthcare, 2022, 10, 1508.

Komalasari, R., Mpofu, E., Prybutok, G., and Ingman, S. (2023). Subjective Functional Difficulties and Subjective Cognitive Decline in Older-Age Adults: Moderation by Age Cohorts and Mediation by Mentally Unhealthy Days. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2023, 20, 1606.

Gayle Prybutok, BSN, MBA, Ph.D.

Health communication/education; health care quality improvement, health education, Internet based health communication, health care service quality, mobile health, health disparities

Selected Publications:

The following publications were co-authored with doctoral student Rifat Afrin. Dr. Prybutok feels that it is her obligation to teach her doctoral students how to publish as part of their education.

Afrin, R., Prybutok, G. (2022). Insights into the antecedents of cyberchondria: a perspective from the USA. Health Promotion International. 37, 1–10.

Afrin, R., Harun,  A., Prybutok, G., Prybutok, V. (2022). Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico Border. Healthcare, 10, 2362.

Afrin, R., Prybutok, G., Prybutok, V. (2022). The pathways from online health information seeking to cyberchondria: A perspective from moderated mediation. Psychiatry Research Communications 2, 2022.100069.

The following publications were co-authored with doctoral student Renata Komalasari and peer in RHS - professor Elias Mpofu.

Komalasari, R., Mpofu, E., Prybutok, G., and Ingman, S. (2022). Daily Living Subjective Cognitive Decline Indicators in Older Adults with Depressive Symptoms: A Scoping Review and Categorization Using Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). Healthcare, 2022, 10, 1508.

Komalasari, R., Mpofu, E., Prybutok, G., and Ingman, S. (2023). Subjective Functional Difficulties and Subjective Cognitive Decline in Older-Age Adults: Moderation by Age Cohorts and Mediation by Mentally Unhealthy Days. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2023, 20, 1606.

Kaiqi Zhou, Ph.D., CRC, LPC-IT

Psychosocial adaptation to chronic illnesses and disabilities (disability acceptance, value change, disability identity), Autism Spectrum Disorder, assistive technology, and application of psychoanalysis in rehabilitation counseling.

Justin Boulay, M.S.

Ticcara N. Cassell

Ryan Cole, M.S. CRC

Lucy Gafford M.S., CRC

Christa Lim

Kellie Nix M.S., CRC