People

Information and links to information about people affiliated with the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health are found below:

Directors
Faculty

Directors

Eileen M. Crimmins
University of Southern California
Center Director
crimmin@usc.edu | More Info
Dr. Crimmins is the Director of the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health as well as the Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology at the Andrus Gerontology Center. Crimmins is known for her work on trends in mortality and morbidity. In addition, she has contributed to the development of the literature on active life expectancy. She is currently working on projects on socioeconomic differences in biological risk and health outcomes. Crimmins is involved in the monitoring and design of a number of major national demographic surveys on health in the older population. She has also worked with federal agencies on the use of demographic and health measures on the older population.

Teresa E. Seeman
University of California, Los Angeles
Co-Director
tseeman@mednet.ucla.edu | More Info
Seeman is a Professor in the Division of Geriatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine. She is an epidemiologist with additional postdoctoral training in neuroendocrinology who has extensive experience in community-based epidemiologic research focusing on psychological and social factors in health and aging. She has served as a Principal Investigator for the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. Many of Seeman's recent publications have focused on the effects of social and psychological factors on neurodendocrine regulation and cognitive and physical functioning. Seeman is Co-Director, with David Reuben, of the Hartford Center for Excellence at UCLA, a training program for geriatric fellows who plan a career in research. Seeman and colleagues have been collaborating on analyses that focus on the biological mechanisms through which SES differences in health arise and the biological mechanisms that intervene between social and psychological characteristics and health outcomes.


Faculty

Hooman Allayee is an Assistant Professor of Preventative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine and is a member of the Institute for Genetic Medicine
hallayee@usc.edu | more info

Carol Aneshensel is a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at UCLA.
aneshensel@ucla.edu | more info

Jennie Brand is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. She is the Co-Principal Investigator for “Immigration and the Dynamics of Labor Market Adjustment in the United States.”
brand@soc.ucla.edu | more info

Arleen Brown is an Assistant Professor at the UCLA Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research. Her research focuses on minority health issues and she has recently received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a study of health care needs among Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes.
abrown@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

Steven Cole is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at UCLA. He is also a member of the Norman Cousins Center, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute.
coles@ucla.edu | more info

Dora Costa is a Professor of Economics at UCLA and is an Associate Director of the California Population Research Center. 
mailcosta@econ.ucla.edu | more info

Elissa Epel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF and is a Co-Director of the Center on Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment (COAST) at UCSF.
maileepel@lppi.ucsf.edu | more info

Susan Ettner is an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at the UCLA School of Medicine.
settner@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

Caleb E. Finch is an ARCO/ Keischnick Professor in the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC.
mailcefinch@usc.edu | more Info

Elizabeth Frankenberg is an Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke University.   
maile.frankenberg@duke.edu | more info

Margaret Gatz is a Professor of Psychology, Gerontology, and Preventative Medicine at USC. She is a psychologist who has worked on cognitive and behavioral functioning in a longitudinal panel of elderly Swedish twins.
gatz@usc.edu | more info

Gail Greendaleis a Professor of Medicine in the Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at UCLA.  She is currently the Principle Investigator for the UCLA site of the multi-center, longitudinal study of the menopausal transition, the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).
ggreenda@mednet.ucla.edu

Tara Gruenewald is an Assistant Professor of Geriatric Medicine at UCLA.
mailtgruenewald@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

Patrick Heuveline is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at UCLA.  
mailheuveline@soc.ucla.edu | more info

Peifeng "Perry" Hu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is investigating the role of key antioxidants play on the health outcomes of participants in the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging.
phu@mednet.ucla.edu | more info
Arun Karlamangla is an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA. His research focuses on the predictors of cardiovascular disease risk and hip fracture risk in older adults.
mailakarlamangla@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

Katherine Kahn is a Professor of Medicine at UCLA and is the Associate Division Chief of Research for the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at UCLA.  She is the Principal Investigator for the RAND-UCLA CanCORS Consortium’s Primary Data Collection and Research Site.
mailkkahn@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

Hillard Kaplan is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. 
mailhkaplan@unm.edu | more info

Jung Ki Kim is a Research Assistant Professor at the Andrus Gerontology Center at USC.  Her research focuses on the relationship between socioeconomic status and biological risk.  Dr. Kim is also working on a cross-country comparison of health status.
mailjungk@usc.edu | more info

Adriana Lleras-Muney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at UCLA and is a member of the California Center for Population Research.
mailalleras@econ.ucla.edu | more info

Valter Longo is an Associate Professor of Gerontology and Biological Science. His research addresses fundamental mechanisms of aging at the cellular level and identifying the molecular pathways shared in both humans and simple organisms.
mailvlongo@usc.edu | more info

Wendy Mack is an Associate Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at USC. Her research focuses on heart disease interventions.
mailwmack@usc.edu | more info

Carol Mangione is a Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA.  She is also the Program Director for the Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly (CHIME).
mailcmangione@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

Mara Mather is an Associate Professor of Gerontology and Psychology at USC..
mailmara.mather@usc.edu | more info

John McArdle is a Professor of Psychology and Gerontology at USC.  He is also the director of the National Growth and Change Study (NGCS).
mailjmcardle@usc.edu | more info

Heather McCreath is a member of the Data Management Core at UCLA Older Americans Independence Center (Pepper Center).
mailhmccreath@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

Sharon Stein Merkin is an Assistant Researcher in the Division of Geriatrics at UCLA. 
mailsmerkin@mednet.ucla.edu

Anne Pebley is the Bixby Professor of Public Health at UCLA. She is a past president of the PAA. She is currently conducting a longitudinal survey of families and households in Los Angeles (LAFANS).
mailpebley@ucla.edu | more info

Carol Prescott is a Professor of Psychology at USC and is the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology.
mailcprescot@usc.edu | more info

David B. Reuben is the Director of the UCLA Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and Director of the UCLA Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center.
maildreuben@mednet.ucla.edu | More Info

Yasuhiko Saito is a Research Associate Professor at Nihon University in Tokyo.  He is also a Research  Professor at the Andrus Gerontology Center at USC. 
more info

Biing-Jien Shen is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at USC.  His research focuses on the effects of psychological factors on cardiovascular health among cardiac patients and high-risk individuals. 
mailbjshen@usc.edu | more info

Merrill Silverstein is the Hanson Family Trust Professor of Gerontology and Sociology. His research focuses on the role social and health factors play in the decision of older people to migrate into retirement communities and the role of social support in preventing physical decline and depression.
mailmerrils@usc.edu | more info

Gary Small is a Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Center on Aging at UCLA. His research focuses on cognition with specific attention to the influence of estrogen and other pharmacologic agents on risks for dementia and cognitive declines more generally. He has examined the influence of APOE-4 on cerebral glucose metabolism in relatives at risk for familial Alzheimer's Disease and the role of other biological predictors of Alzheimer's Disease.
mailgsmall@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

John Strauss is a Professor of Economics at USC.  He is currently the Principal Investigator of the Indonesia Family Life Survey and is involved in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS).
mailjstrauss@usc.edu | more info

Shelley Taylor is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA and is the Director of the UCLA Social Neuroscience Lab.
mailtaylors@psych.ucla.edu | more info

Duncan Thomas is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Duke University. 
maild.thomas@duke.edu | more info

Donald Treiman is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology at UCLA.  He is also a member of the Biodemography Core Committee for the California Center for Population Research.
mailtreiman@ucla.edu | more info

Dawn Upchurch is a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at UCLA School of Public Health She is a member of the Biodemography Core Committee for the California Center for Population Research.
mailupchurch@ucla.edu 

Richard Wight is a mental health and stress researcher at the School of Public Health at UCLA.
mailrwight@ucla.edu

Mitchell Wong is an Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at UCLA. His research focuses on racial and ethnic differences in health.
mailmiwong@mednet.ucla.edu | more info

Shinyi Wu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at USC.  Prior to joining USC in 2008, she served as Associate Director of the Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation at Rand. 
mailshinyiwu@usc.edu | more info

Elizabeth Zelinski is a cognitive psychologist and a Professor of Gerontology and Psychology at USC whose area of expertise is in longitudinal change in cognition in older adults.
mailzelinski@usc.edu | more info