University of California, San Francisco & Berkeley Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars
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(2009-2011) Cohort 7 Scholars
Nicole Bush, PhD
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Laura M. Gottlieb, MD, MPH
Laura Gottlieb completed her MD at Harvard Medical School and her MPH at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine. She also completed a family medicine residency at the Harborview Medical Center with the University of Washington. Her MPH thesis focused on the influence of food supplementation programs on obesity in low- income women. Her current work is on the role of macro-level policies (economics, community planning, welfare reform) in changing health outcomes.
With the Health and Society Scholars, she plans to work with the Alameda and San Francisco Public Health Departments in promoting and improving health impact assessments so they can be used to influence policy recommendations. Other academic interests include integrating social determinants of health theory with medical education and exploring the current obesity epidemic through historical and anthropological lenses.
Laura spends time outside the office laughing, running and hiking, nationally and internationally, with her sweet husband and their adorable brown dog. Read More
A. Janet Tomiyama, PhD
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(2008-2010) Cohort 6 Scholars
Annaliese Beery, PhD
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Julie Harris, PhD
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Cassandra Okechukwu, ScD
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(2007-2009) Cohort 5 Scholar-3rd Year
Kaja LeWinn, ScD
Dr. Kaja LeWinn’s research explores how socioeconomic position is biologically embodied during childhood with the goal of understanding early life origins of health disparities. In 2007, Kaja completed her doctorate in Social Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her thesis examined the impact of stress hormones during gestation and social disadvantage in the first five years of life on cognitive performance at age 7. As a Scholar, Kaja has extended this work by investigating the extent to which physiological responses to stress mediate the relationship between socioeconomic position and cognitive outcomes. In order to better understand the neurobiological mechanisms by which early adversity affects brain development, Kaja obtained extensive training in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). She is currently the Principal Investigator of a novel pilot project using fMRI that explores whether socioeconomic conditions in childhood are associated with neural correlates of emotion regulation and, if so, whether this relationship is modified by genetic factors. In future projects, Kaja will continue to use fMRI to explore how genetic factors interact with social adversity early in life to influence the mental and physical health of the developing child.