People

Theresa Allison, MD, PhD

Professor of Clinical Medicine
Medicine

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

Adjunct Professor
Medicine

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, PhD, RN, FAAN

Associate Professor
Family Health Care Nursing

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

Karen Barrett, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor
Institute for Health & Aging

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 & Neck Surgery at the School of Medicine. She is an Auditory Cognitive Neuroscientist, and her research interests include the neuroscience of artistic creativity, music perception in cochlear implant users, and music, aging, and health.

Matthew Beld

Research Data Analyst 3
Institute for Health & Aging

Paula Braveman, MD, MPH

Professor Emeritus
Family Community Medicine

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.

Jess Celentano

Deputy Director
Pandemic Prep & Response

Jess has a split appointment between the Institute for Global Health Sciences where she is the Management Lead in the Center for Pandemic Preparedness and the SON's Institute for Health and Aging where she serves as the Chief Administrative Officer.

Sneha Challa, PhD, MPH

Research Analyst
Institute for Health & Aging

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 Chapman, RN, PhD, FAAN

Prof & Director, Policy Progs

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.

Winston Chiong, MD, PhD

Professor in Residence
Neurology

Dr. Winston Chiong is a Professor in the UCSF Department of Neurology 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.

Jiwon Choi, RN, PhD

Associate Adjunct Professor
Institute for Health & Aging

Leslie Dubbin, RN, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor
Social Behavioral Sciences

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.

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