People

Theresa A. Allison, MD, M. Music, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics, with a secondary appointment in Family and Community Medicine. She completed both the MD and PhD (Musicology) through the University of Illinois Medical Scholars Program. She completed family practice residency and geriatric fellowship training at UCSF. Dr. Allison’s research sits at the intersection of music, well-being, dementia and relationships, bridging the medical humanities and health sciences.

Louise Aronson, MD MFA, is a leading geriatrician, writer, educator, professor of medicine at UCSF and the author of the New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining Life. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Aronson has received the Gold Professorship in Humanism in Medicine, the California Homecare Physician of the Year award, and the American Geriatrics Society Clinician-Teacher of the Year award.

Ifeyinwa Asiodu is a Professor in the Department of Family Health Care Nursing at University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. As a reproductive health equity researcher, public health nurse, and lactation consultant, her research is focused on the intersection of systemic and structural barriers, life course perspective, and human milk and lactation. Dr. Asiodu uses a critical ethnographic lens to inform her work.

Karen Chan Barrett, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Institute for Health & Aging at the UCSF School of Nursing and the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at the UCSF School of Medicine. She is an auditory cognitive neuroscientist whose research examines how music engages the brain and how musical experiences can support health and well-being across the lifespan.

Paula Braveman, MD, MPH is Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Founding Director of the Center for Health Equity at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). For more than 25 years, Dr. Braveman has studied and published extensively on health equity and the social determinants of health, and has worked to bring attention to these issues in the U.S. and internationally. Her research has focused on measuring, documenting, understanding, and addressing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities, particularly in maternal and infant health.

Sneha Challa is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Challa obtained her PhD in Public Health with a concentration in Global Health from the University of California San Diego and San Diego State University. She obtained her MPH from the University of Michigan in Health Behavior and Health Education with a concentration in Global Health. Her research interests include studying the impact of gender norms on sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

Susan A. Chapman, PhD, RN, FAAN is Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF School of Nursing, Healthforce Center and the Institute for Health Policy Studies. She is Co-Director of the Masters and Doctoral programs in Health Policy at the School of Nursing. Her scholarly work focuses on health workforce research and health policy analysis. Susan’s workforce research focuses on transforming health workforce roles in new models of care and payment reform, the long term care workforce, and advanced practice nurses in behavioral health.

Dr. Winston Chiong is a Professor in the UCSF Department of Neurology, Fein Memory and Aging Center, principal investigator of the UCSF Decision Lab (https://decisionlab.ucsf.edu), Director of UCSF Bioethics (https://bioethics.ucsf.edu), and Mary Oakley Professor of Neuroethics at UCSF. His clinical practice focuses on Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and other cognitive disorders of aging.

Dr. Leslie Dubbin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF. Her current program of research explores the social and health impacts of public housing renovation and redevelopment in San Francisco; intersections of race, culture, place and space on the reproduction of social and health inequalities; the nature of racism and its impact on the illness experiences of African Americans; the dynamics of how social inequalities are transacted in patient-provider interactions and the experiences of those living with chronic illness. Dr.