HLT POL M110/ ASIAN AM M161 Introductions

About Dr. Ninez A. Ponce

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Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, MPP, is Professor and Endowed Chair in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and Principal Investigator for the California Health Interview Survey, the largest state survey in the USA. Dr. Ponce is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors, National Center for Health Statistics. She has participated in committees for the National Academy of Medicine and the National Quality Forum, where her expertise has focused on setting guidance for health systems in the measurement and use of social determinants of health as tools to monitor health equity.

She has received numerous awards from community organizations recognizing her work in community-engaged research. In 2019 Dr. Ponce and her team received the AcademyHealth Impact award for their contributions to population health measurement to inform public policies. In 2021, Dr. Ponce served as a Commissioner for the RWJF Transforming Public Health Data Initiative and currently serves on the Data Disaggregation workgroup for the White House Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Commission. Currently, she is an Associate Editor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at JAMA Health Forum and is on the editorial boards of Milbank Quarterly, Health Services Research and Health Affairs.

Dr. Ponce champions better data, especially for people from marginalized racial and ethnic, sexual orientation and gender identity, and immigrant populations. She firmly believes that equity-centered data will lead to more meaningful program and policy inferences and better care for overlooked groups.

Contact Information

Email: nponce@ucla.edu

To schedule an office hour or appointment with Dr. Ponce, please send an email to her assistant, Hala Douglas at hkdouglas@ucla.edu.

Office Hours

Wednesdays 12pm-2pm, CHS 31-269

About Varsha Nair

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From Orange County, CA, Varsha Nair (she/her) is a second year MPH student and Andrew B. Fielding Fellow in Mental Health studying Health Policy in the Health Policy and Management Department. She previously received her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Neuroscience and African American and Diaspora Studies from Vanderbilt University in 2022.

Varsha currently works as an on-call Professional Development Assistant for Hillsides, a Pasadena-based youth and adolescent behavioral health non-profit, and as a graduate student researcher (GSR), leading data evaluation for the Healthy Tomorrows Project under Dr. Priyanka Fernandes. She plans to pursue a career in health policy research and analysis focused on evidence-based interventions that can improve mental health outcomes for school-age (K-12) youth and adolescents of color.

Contact Information

Email: nairvm@g.ucla.edu

Office Hours

Tuesdays 2pm-3pm, Thursdays 12pm-1pm: Zoom