Dr. Neeta Thakur is a pulmonary and critical care physician at UCSF who examines the role of social and environmental stressors on asthma and COPD in historically marginalized communities. Better definitions of the mechanism of how social and environmental stressors impact asthma and COPD will allow for the development of targeted interventions and therapies to improve related outcomes in historically marginalized communities. Dr. Thakur completed a dual degree program in public health and medicine at the University of Arizona focused on community health and program development and evaluation. She came to UCSF for residency in Internal Medicine and stayed to complete her Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship and has expertise in clinical research methods, social epidemiology, and implementation sciences. Dr. Thakur's experience as a clinician, and now Medical Director of the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) Chest Clinic, gives her first-hand insight on how social and environmental stress negatively affect asthma and COPD outcomes and practical knowledge of the existing barriers to adoption of evidence-based interventions into practice.

Dr. Thakur’s NIH supported research focuses on: 1) defining obstructive lung disease phenotypes that exist in racially and ethnically diverse communities and how these are shaped by social and environmental stressors and 2) identifying community-specific drivers that place individuals at high risk for poor outcomes and 3) co-developing place-based and targeted interventions aimed at social and environmental stressors to improve respiratory outcomes in historically marginalized populations. To successfully achieve these goals, Dr. Thakur employs community-engaged approaches that range from querying community stakeholders for input to participatory action research through our Youth Participatory Action Research program and our environmental justice portfolio.