Study Investigators
Scarlett Lin Gomez, PhD, MPH
Dr. Scarlett Gomez is trained as an epidemiologist and conducts research to understand patterns of cancer across population groups and the factors contributing to cancer disparities. She is particularly interested in cancer in Asian American populations and has dedicated her career to focus on understanding the causes of cancer in diverse communities.
"Co-leading the ASPIRE cohort with this team is very meaningful to me, given my experiences as a first-generation immigrant from Taiwan, and seeing how cancer has impacted my families and our community members. For far too long, Asian Americans have been understudied in cancer research. It is my hope that ASPIRE will serve as a much needed resource that will provide insights into the causes of cancer for our diverse Asian American communities and will continue to contribute knowledge for many years to come!"
Iona Cheng, PhD, MPH
Dr. Iona Cheng investigates racial and ethnic disparities in cancer risk and prognosis, with a focus on neighborhood, environmental, lifestyle, and molecular factors. Her research program includes studies examining lung cancer risk among Asian American females who have never smoked. She brings extensive scientific and operational expertise in conducting epidemiologic cohort studies involving multiethnic populations as well as specific racial and ethnic groups.
"I am thrilled and honored to be a part of building ASPIRE, the very first Asian American cohort study focused on representing the perspectives of all Asian American ethnic groups in understanding the underlying causes of cancer. I envision ASPIRE as a long-standing resource committed to making meaningful and lasting impacts on the health priorities of our community."
Salma Shariff-Marco, PhD, MPH
Dr. Salma Shariff-Marco is a social and behavioral scientist and her research is focused on the role of structural and social drivers of health in shaping and perpetuating health disparities. She leads studies to understand the multilevel drivers impacting cancer risk and outcomes, including among Asian American populations.
“I am so honored to be co-leading ASPIRE with this esteemed team to establish the first national cohort study to identify the risk factors contributing to cancer in the diverse and growing Asian American community. Building the ASPIRE cohort with the support of our community partners will ensure that this study is responsive to community needs and voices.”
UCSF Study Staff
Laura Allen, BA
Laura Allen has over 20 years’ experience in managing large-scale, multi-lingual epidemiologic studies. She oversees many research projects, including administrative, regulatory, and design elements. She has been key in developing study portals and improving user experiences, coordinating multi-site projects, and forming high-level institutional relationships. Her skills include recruitment, training, survey design, electronic consent and survey programming, and data management.
Debby Oh, MSc, PhD
Dr. Debby Oh is a data scientist at UCSF with a background in epidemiology and graphic design. Her work involves analyzing and visualizing data from the cancer registry, electronic health records, census, and other public data sources. She led the development of several interactive visualization websites including the UCSF Health Atlas, California Health Maps, Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry dashboard and UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center dashboard.
Alice Guan, PhD, MPH
Dr. Alice Guan is a social epidemiologist who studies how social and economic factors shape health and well-being. She is particularly interested in understanding how policies impact health and well-being across the life course, and how they can be leveraged to mitigate health disparities.
"ASPIRE is important to me because it provides a unique and historic opportunity to understand the social needs of diverse Asian American communities, paving the way for more inclusive and equitable health solutions."
Mimi (Trucmai) Ton, PhD, MPH
Dr. Mimi Ton is a second-generation Vietnamese American and epidemiologist at UCSF conducting research on cancer. She received a PhD in Epidemiology from University of Washington and MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University. What drives and inspires her to pursue this research and be a part of ASPIRE is her hope to serve and address health among the Asian American community. This cohort will help inform us of risk, lifestyle, and social factors that are persistent in our communities, especially one that looks and is like her parents.
Mindy Hebert-DeRouen, PhD, MPH
Dr. Mindy Hebert-DeRouen is Research Scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF, Associate Director for Data Infrastructure for the Population Health Data Initiative, and Co-Investigator of the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry. Her scholarship and ongoing research efforts address inequities in cancer and other health outcomes due to multi-level determinants, especially structural and social determinants of health. She has expertise pooling and harmonizing complex multi-level data from disparate sources, including contextual-level data and data from electronic health records, and designing analyses that use multi-level data to study health inequities. She conducts mixed-methods, community partnered studies that build and strengthen the foundation for community efforts to promote the health of residents.
Esperanza Castillo, MS
Esperanza earned her Master's degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from San Francisco State University. She joined UCSF in 2018 and has since supported projects focused on addressing health disparities in preterm birth, women's reproductive health and cancer. She is thrilled to be part of the ASPIRE study, as it is the first cohort of its kind to represent all Asian ethnic groups nationwide and it will provide insights into the causes of cancer within the Asian American population.
Michelle Wadhwa, RN
Michelle previously worked as an ICU nurse at a hospital that served a diverse population of Asians and Asian Americans in the community. During her time there, she witnessed firsthand the common health issues affecting these groups, especially at a time when there was limited health research focused on Asians living in the U.S.
"I consider it a great privilege to work with a dedicated team focused on understanding health disparities. I am excited to be a part of the ASPIRE Cohort Study team, conducting much-needed research that can foster change in the healthcare of Asian American communities and beyond."
Zinnia Loya
Zinnia Loya has 20 years of experience in large-scale multi-lingual patient contact epidemiologic studies. She coordinates many aspects of research projects including administration, data collection, data management, and outreach. She has been key in study recruitment efforts and forming relationships for community engagement.
Kathie Lau, MEng
Kathie has nearly two decades of experience in multi-lingual patient contact epidemiologic studies. With her technical background, she coordinates different aspects of research projects including survey design and programming, automation in large-scale multi-lingual invitations, project progress tracking, data collection and management. She also is involved with study recruitment and outreach.
Peggy Reynolds, PhD, MPH, MA
Dr. Peggy Reynolds is an epidemiologist with research interests focused on environmental risk factors for cancer. Her research program has incorporated geographic information system tools and studies of biomarkers of exposure and effect to assess risk relationships for children and adults. She currently serves as a co-Investigator for UCSF's Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center and as MPI for a prospective study of cancer risks, the "Discovering cancer Risks from Environmental contaminants And Maternal/child health" (DREAM) cohort. She has a history of community-based participatory research partnerships to examine a number of factors of public concern for cancer and other diseases in women.
Van Ta Park, PhD, MPH
Dr. Van Ta Park is trained in ethnogeriatrics, public health, health policy, and sociology. Dr. Park has extensive experience in community-based participatory research with Asian Americans, qualitative and quantitative methodologies, intervention development, study implementation, and program evaluation. Her primary research interest is to address issues related to racial and ethnic minority health and healthcare disparities, especially among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) populations. Her research areas include recruitment science, mental health and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) caregiving.
Jane Jih, MD, MPH, MAS
Dr. Jane Jih is a bilingual (English/Mandarin) second generation Taiwanese American practicing general internist and investigator focused on reducing health disparities and promoting health equity through the design and implementation of patient-centered interventions among multiethnic and linguistically diverse adults, particularly Asian Americans. She has a longstanding commitment to studying and addressing health disparities in Asian American communities.
"Being a part of ASPIRE is a continuation of making Asian American health visible to collect the data necessary to prevent disease and improve health outcomes among Asian American communities."
June Maylin Chan, ScD
Dr. June Chan is a cancer epidemiologist, focused on studying ways to reduce cancer progression and death. A long-standing theme of her work has been examining health behaviors (diet, exercise) as they relate to prostate cancer survivorship outcomes. Her parents are both Chinese from Malaysia; she was born and raised in California; her professional training and career took her to Boston, Sweden, Finland, and then back to California.
"I think ASPIRE will be an important study that sheds light on the diversity of Asian cultures in the US and consequently help us identify ways to improve health behaviors, health access, and overall health for populations historically under-represented in research."
Elissa Epel, PhD
Dr. Elissa Epel is a Professor, and Vice Chair, in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research aims to elucidate mechanisms of healthy aging and to apply this basic science to scalable interventions that can reach vulnerable populations. She is the Director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, Co-Director of the Center for Health and Community. She is the Director of the Mental Health Council for climate change, part of the UC wide Climate Change, Health and Equity Center.
ASPIRE National Team
UCI
Sunmin Lee, ScD
Sora Tanjasiri, MPH, DrPH
Wendy Cozen, DO, MPH
UC Davis
Moon Chen, MPH, PhD
University of Hawaii
Alexandra Binder, ScD
Cedars Sinai
Robert Haile, DrPH
Zul Surani
Gillian Gresham
Christie Jeon
Temple University
Grace Ma, PhD
UCLA
Gilbert Gee, PhD
Thomas Jefferson University
Terry Hyslop, PhD
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