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 AARP 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. 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. Crimmins and Seeman also direct the Network on Measurements of Biological Risk. Cimmins also directs the multidisciplinary Training in Gerontology grant at USC.
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
Cleopatra Abdou is an Assistant Professor of Gerontology at USC. Her research focuses on how social environments promote health and well-being over the lifecourse.
cabdou@usc.edu | more info
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
David Conti is an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at USC. His research seeks to elucidate the genetic contribution of complex diseases from population-based samples.
dconti@usc.edu | more info
Dora Costa is a Professor of Economics at UCLA and is an Associate Director of the California Population Research Center.
costa@econ.ucla.edu | more info
Sean Curran is an Assistant Professor of Gerontology whose work is in the Biology of Aging.
spcurran@usc.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.
cefinch@usc.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
Dana Goldman is a Professor and the Norman Topping Chair in Medicine and Public Policy at USC, as well as the Director of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. He is also a research associate with NBER and is the Director of the RAND/UCLA Health Services Research Postdoctoral Training Program. His research focuses on the role of health care and health insurance in determining health-related outcomes.
dpgoldma@usc.edu | more info
Gail Greendale is 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 Gerontology at USC.
tgruenewald@mednet.ucla.edu | more info
Patrick Heuveline is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at UCLA.
heuveline@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.
akarlamangla@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.
kkahn@mednet.ucla.edu | more info
Jung Ki Kim is a Research Associate 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.
jungk@usc.edu | more info
Darius Lakdawalla is an Associate Professor in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development (SPPD) at USC and is the Director of Research at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.
dlakdawa@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.
alleras@econ.ucla.edu | more info
Valter Longo is a 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.
vlongo@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.
wmack@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).
cmangione@mednet.ucla.edu | more info
Mara Mather is an Associate Professor of Gerontology and Psychology at USC.
mara.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).
jmcardle@usc.edu | more info
Heather McCreath is a member of the Data Management Core at UCLA Older Americans Independence Center (Pepper Center). She is a member of the Biodemography Core Committee of the USC/UCLA CBPH.
hmccreath@mednet.ucla.edu | more info
Kathleen McGarry is a Professor of Economics at UCLA and a Research Associate at the NBER.
mcgarry@ucla.edu | more info
Sharon Stein Merkin is an Assistant Researcher in the Division of Geriatrics at UCLA.
smerkin@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).
pebley@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.
cprescot@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 Older Americans Independence Center (Pepper Center).
dreuben@mednet.ucla.edu | 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.
bjshen@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.
merrils@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.
gsmall@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 (IFLS) and is involved in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS).
jstrauss@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.
taylors@psych.ucla.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 UCLA California Center for Population Research (CCPR).
treiman@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 UCLA California Center for Population Research (CCPR).
upchurch@ucla.edu
Richard Wight is an Associate Researcher at the School of Public Health at UCLA.
rwight@ucla.edu
Mitchell Wong is an Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at UCLA. His research focuses on racial and ethnic differences in health.
miwong@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.
shinyiwu@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.
zelinski@usc.edu | more info
Julie Zissimopoulos is an Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy at USC and the Associate Director of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. She is also an Adjunct Senior Economist at RAND and Professor of Economics at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.
zissimop@usc.edu | more info