My professional activities are grounded in engaging diverse partners in the development of evidence-based policy change to reduce social inequalities and improve health among underserved communities.

As an Associate Professor, my research focuses on applying epidemiological methods to study the impact of individual, social, and structural factors on disease transmission within marginalized populations. In particular, my work has focused on using qualitative and quantitative methods to examine social determinants of health within people who use drugs, including HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, worldwide. Internationally I have collaborated with researchers to carry out HIV and HCV prevention and transmission studies in the U.S.-Mexico border region, Jamaica, Australia, Tanzania, and Namibia. Recently I have expanded my research to include the intersection of criminal justice systems, homelessness and health among people who use drugs.

As an educator, I take pleasure in exposing learners to the intersection of social justice and epidemiology. I addition to formal teaching in epidemiology methods (quant, qual and dyadic methods), I provide mentorship to a diverse set of learners from the fields of sociology, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health. As a woman of color and the first person in my family to attend college, I am most interested in mentoring scholars with identities underrepresented in academic research.

Prior to joining UCSF as faculty, I completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in infectious disease epidemiology at UCSF, a Ph.D. in Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology and Global Health from UCSD/SDSU’s Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health, an MPH in epidemiology from San Diego State University (SDSU), and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biochemistry & Cellular Biology from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).