Jennifer James • UCSF Profiles

Jennifer James, PhD, MS, MSW

Title(s)	Associate Professor, Institute for Health & Aging
School	School of Nursing
Address	3333 California Street, #122P San Francisco CA 94118
Phone	415-502-3294
Pronouns	She/Her/Hers
ORCID	0000-0001-6240-3487
vCard	Download vCard

Biography

education and training

University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA	PhD	06/2016	Sociology
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA	MS	08/2010	Social Policy
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA	MSW	05/2010	Social Work
Yale University, New Haven, CT	BA	05/2008	Political Science

awards and honors

SUNY Upstate Medical University	2025		Reiss Family Visiting Lectureship in Ethics and Equity
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, RACE Affinity Group	2024		Dr. Claretta Dupree Award for Commitment to Justice in Bioethics
University of California, San Francisco	2024		ARCHES Mid-career Scholar
University of Pennsylvania	2024		Renee Fox Lectureship
University of California Medical Students Training in Aging Research (MSTAR)	2022		2022 MSTAR Best Research Mentor Award
University of California, San Francisco	2022		UCSF Multiethnic Health Equity Research Center Emerging Health Equity Scholar Award
Society of Family Planning	2021		Changemaker in Family Planning Award
University of California, San Francisco	2021		UCSF Society of Hellman Fellows Award
Greenwall Foundation	2021		Greenwall Faculty Scholar
University of California, San Francisco	2021		UCSF Population Health and Health Equity Scholar
American Public Health Association, Aging and Public Health Section	2020		Betty Cleckley Minority Issues Research Award, Honorable Mention
Lifespan/Brown Criminal Justice Research Training Program	2020		Lifespan/Brown Criminal Justice Research Training Program Scholar
UCSF Center for Aging in Diverse Communities and UCSF Pepper Center	2019		UCSF Center for Aging in Diverse Communities Scholar
International Institute for Qualitative Inquiry	2018		Qualitative Dissertation Award
Sociologists for Women in Society	2015		Barbara Rosenblum Dissertation Award
UCSF School of Nursing	2015		UCSF School of Nursing Alumni Association Scholarship
University of California, San Francisco	2014		University of California Dissertation-Year Fellowship
UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences	2014		Virginia Olesen Dissertation Scholarship
UCSF Hartford Center	2014		UCSF Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence Research & Leadership Development in Geron
Sociologists for Women in Society	2013		Esther Ngan-Ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Scholarship
University of California, San Francisco	2013		UCSF Graduate Dean’s Health Science Fellowship
American Association for Cancer Research	2012		AACR Susan G. Komen for the Cure Scholar-in-Training Award
American Association for Cancer Research	2012		AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award
University of California, San Francisco	2012		UCSF Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship
University of California, San Francisco	2010 -	2012	UCSF National Institute for General Medical Sciences Fellowship
Morse College, Yale University	2008		Yale University Morse College Fellows Award
City of New Haven, CT	2007		Official Citation, City of New Haven
Yale University	2006		Yale University President’s Public Service Fellowship

Overview

media links

	HealthLink on Air, WRVO Public Media (5/11/25)
	The Informed Patient Podcast: Forced Sterilizations in the US (4/14/25)
	Forcibly sterilized in California prisons, victims stitch together memorial quilt (2/22/25)
	Researchers reel as Trump administration moves quickly to cut funding and end DEI health programs ‘The work is hard enough to do as it is,’ said one advocate who urged scientists to push back (1/27/25)
	Trump’s restrictions spark chaos across health and science agencies Ongoing experiments, research funding, and scientists’ careers are all at stake (1/24/25)
	Trump freeze on NIH grant reviews alarms scientists, with long-term impact uncertain (1/24/25)
	For Survivors of Forced Sterilization in California Prisons, a Rushed Shot at Justice (12/20/24)
	‘I Would Have Been a Great Mom’: California Finally Pays Reparations to Woman It Sterilized (10/7/24)
	‘I Would Have Been a Great Mom’: California Finally Pays Reparations to Woman It Sterilized (10/7/24)
	Corridors of Contagion: How the Pandemic Exposed the Cruelties of Incarceration An Excerpt from the New Book by Victoria Law (9/17/24)
	Black Americans’ risk for breast cancer gains clarity in analysis of 40,000 genomes (5/21/24)
	Forced Sterilization Survivors Undertake Own Healing After Feeling 'Silenced Again' by State (4/15/24)
	How Do You Put a Price on the Loss of Autonomy From Forced Sterilization? (11/9/2023)
	Over 500 Survivors of Forced Sterilization Applied for Reparations. Fewer Than a Quarter Have Been Accepted. (11/7/2023)
	Few Survivors Have Been Paid as California Sterilization Reparation Program Winds Down (11/6/2023)
	California’s Reparations Program for Survivors of Forced Sterilization Falls Short As Deadline Nears (11/1/2023)
	Survivors from California’s Period of Forced Sterilization Denied Reparations (11/1/2023)
	Forced Sterilization Survivors of California Prisons Face Reparations Deadline (10/30/23)
	California promised reparations to survivors of forced sterilization. Few people have gotten them. (9/5/2023)
	Compensation for forced sterilizations in California ends soon. Here’s how to apply (8/4/2023)
	Compensation for forced sterilizations in California ends soon. Here's how to apply (8/4/2023)
	‘We went from almost no lockdowns to daily lockdowns’: The mental health crisis inside California women’s prisons (4/28/2023)
	This clinical trial wanted to end breast cancer disparities. But first it needed to enroll Black women (6/30/2022)
	A Legacy of Medical Injustice towards People of Color and its Hindering of the Vaccination Effort (8/4/21)
	What’s Wrong (and Right) With Race in Medicine Six health care experts grapple with how to address race without being racist. (Summer 2021)
	Researcher of the Month: Jennifer James, PhD, MSW, MSSP (7/15/2021)
	People With High-Risk Disabilities Feel Left Out By California's Vaccine System (3/9/2021)
	Bioethicists Have Advice For Navigating The COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout (3/8/2021)
	As LA County Expands Vaccination Eligibility, We Look At The Ethical Issues In California’s Rollout (3/2021)

Bibliographic

selected publications

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Researchers can login to make corrections and additions, or contact us for help. to make corrections and additions.

Altmetrics Details

PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.

Experiences of Indigenous and ethnic minority women with culturally safe healthcare in Europe: A scoping review. PLoS One. 2025; 20(6):e0325847. Narbarte GE, Perez-Urdiales I, James J, Dubbin L, Aguinaga SB. PMID: 40561084; PMCID: PMC12193589.

View in: PubMed Mentions:
R. Mukerjee and C. Martinez (Eds)., All This Safety is Killing us. Medical neglect as carceral violence: How incarcerated women seek health, give care, and resist violence behind bars. 2025. Elster, A., James, JE, Perez-Aguilar, G., Riddle, LS. .
Naturalistic psychedelic experiences and gender-based self-acceptance in transgender and gender-expansive people. International Journal of Transgender Health. 2025; 1-16. Skylar J Gaughan, Angie R Wootton, Daphne Krantz, Alan K Davis, Jennifer E James, Rocco Rinaldi-Rose, Rafaelle Lancelotta, Jae M Sevelius. View Publication.
"By the Time We Knew …": Poetic Analysis of End-of-Life Caregiving Experiences for Rapidly Progressive and Slower-Duration Dementia Syndromes. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2025 May; 73(5):1406-1418. Harrison KL, Morgan BE, Friend J, Garrett SB, Looi D, Halim M, James JE, Boyd ND, Gilissen J, Geschwind MD, Ritchie CS, Smith AK. PMID: 39907502; PMCID: PMC12101954.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Ger Geriatrics
Psychedelic Exceptionalism, Indigeneity, and the War on Drugs: Antiracism and Decolonizing Psychedelic Plant Medicine. Am J Bioeth. 2025 Jan; 25(1):71-73. Gaughan SJ, James JE. PMID: 39804309.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Eth Ethics
Threats to Women's Health in Prisons and Jails. JAMA Intern Med. 2025 Jan 01; 185(1):5-6. Haber LA, James JE, Williams BA. PMID: 39527070; PMCID: PMC11995878.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Int Internal Medicine
Moving toward Equity through Embedded ELSI Ethnography. Hastings Cent Rep. 2024 Dec; 54 Suppl 2:S93-S101. James JE, Riddle L, Koenig B, Joseph G. PMID: 39707938.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Eth Ethics Hea Health Services Research Psy Psychiatry
Translation:Humans
Receiving a Pathogenic Variant in a Population Breast Cancer Screening Trial: A Mixed Method Study. Public Health Genomics. 2024; 27(1):177-196. Riddle L, James JE, Naeim A, Madlensky L, Brain S, DeRosa D, Eklund M, Fiscalini AS, Heditsian D, Koenig B, Ross K, Sabacan LP, Tong B, Wenger N, Joseph G. PMID: 39307132.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Gen Genetics Pub Public Health
Translation:Humans
“Mammograms are kind of my pacifier”: The cultural context of women’s preference for annual mammograms in a risk-based screening cohort. SSM-Qualitative Research in Health. 2024; 100476. Katherine Leggat-Barr, Galen Joseph, Leslie Riddle, Mikaella Caruncho, Barbara Koenig, Jennifer E. James. . View Publication.
Race-Ethnicity, Rurality, and Age in Prospective Preferences and Concerns Regarding Closed-Loop Implanted Neural Devices. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2025; 37(1):79-87. Chen BB, Haeusermann T, Dada A, Hamilton RH, James JE, Fong KC, Dohan D, Chiong W. PMID: 39169740; PMCID: PMC11969628.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1 Fields:
Neu Neurology Psy Psychiatry
Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Bioethics: Recommendations from the Association of Bioethics Program Directors Presidential Task Force. Am J Bioeth. 2024 Oct; 24(10):3-14. Lee SS, Walker A, Callier SL, Fletcher FE, Galarneau C, Garrison N, James JE, McLeod-Sordjan R, Ogbogu U, Sederstrom N, Smith PT, Braddock CH, Mitchell C. PMID: 39102590.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Eth Ethics
Translation:Humans
Controlling Reproduction and Disrupting Family Formation: California Women’s Prisons and the Violent Legacy of Eugenics. Societies. 2024; 14(5):73. Vrindavani Avila and Jennifer Elyse James. . View Publication.
Caregiver Experiences of Racialization While Accessing Early Intervention (EI) Services for their Children. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. 2024. Jessa N. Culver, MS, Susanne P. Martin Herz, MD, PhD, Adriana Guzman, BA, Javier Aguayo, BA, Jyothi Marbin, MD, Kenya Martinez, BA, and Jennifer James, PhD, MS, MSW. View Publication.
"We're Not Patients. We're Inmates": Older Black Women's Experience of Aging, Health, and Illness During and After Incarceration. Gerontologist. 2024 04 01; 64(4). James JE. PMID: 37650919; PMCID: PMC11491521.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Ger Geriatrics
Translation:Humans
Reproductive Justice and Abolition: Important Lessons Black Feminists Have Been Teaching Us for Years. Am J Bioeth. 2024 Feb; 24(2):55-58. James JE. PMID: 38295241.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Eth Ethics
Translation:Humans
A qualitative study of primary care clinician's approach to ending cervical cancer screening in older women in the United States. Prev Med Rep. 2023 Dec; 36:102500. Holt HK, Flores R, James JE, Waters C, Kaplan CP, Peterson CE, Sawaya GF. PMID: 38116273; PMCID: PMC10728461.

View in: PubMed Mentions:
The Problem Is Not (Merely) Mass Incarceration: Incarceration as a Bioethical Crisis and Abolition as a Moral Obligation. Hastings Cent Rep. 2023 Nov; 53(6):35-37. James JE. PMID: 38131492.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Eth Ethics Hea Health Services Research Psy Psychiatry
Translation:Humans
Bonaparte AD, Oparah J, editors. Birthing Justice Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth. Sheltering in Community: Reimagining Black Birth during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 2023. James JE, Roane A, Oparah JC.
"Good luck, social distance": rapid decarceration and community care for serious mental illness and substance use disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Justice. 2023 Sep 18; 11(1):39. James JE, Dauria EF, Desai R, Bell A, Izenberg JM. PMID: 37721650; PMCID: PMC10506186.

View in: PubMed Mentions:
The role of polygenic risk scores in breast cancer risk perception and decision-making. J Community Genet. 2023 Oct; 14(5):489-501. Riddle L, Joseph G, Caruncho M, Koenig BA, James JE. PMID: 37311883; PMCID: PMC10576692.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1
Correction to: Black Bioethics in the Age of Black Lives Matter. J Med Humanit. 2023 Jun; 44(2):287-289. Ray K, Fletcher FE, Martschenko DO, James JE. PMID: 36823391; PMCID: PMC9950005.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Eth Ethics
Hospice Quality, Race, and Disenrollment in Hospice Enrollees With Dementia. J Palliat Med. 2023 08; 26(8):1100-1108. Hunt LJ, Gan S, Smith AK, Aldridge MD, Boscardin WJ, Harrison KL, James JE, Lee AK, Yaffe K. PMID: 37010377; PMCID: PMC10440673.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 3 Fields:
Pal Palliative Care
Translation:Humans
Black Bioethics in the Age of Black Lives Matter. J Med Humanit. 2023 06; 44(2):251-267. Ray K, Fletcher FE, Martschenko DO, James JE. PMID: 36752936; PMCID: PMC9905759.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 2 Fields:
Eth Ethics
Diagnosis and the practices of patienthood: How diagnostic journeys shape illness experiences. Sociol Health Illn. 2024 Mar; 46(S1):225-241. Jeske M, James J, Joyce K. PMID: 36707922.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 4 Fields:
Soc Social Sciences
Translation:Humans
"Prison life is very hard and it's made harder if you're isolated": COVID-19 risk mitigation strategies and the mental health of incarcerated women in California. Int J Prison Health. 2023 03 16; 19(1):95-108. James JE, Riddle L, Perez-Aguilar G. PMID: 36394281; PMCID: PMC10129363.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1 Fields:
Pub Public Health
Translation:Humans PHPublic Health
"It's personalized, but it's still bucket based": The promise of personalized medicine vs. the reality of genomic risk stratification in a breast cancer screening trial. New Genet Soc. 2022; 41(3):228-253. James JE, Joseph G. PMID: 36936188; PMCID: PMC10021681.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1
A qualitative study of unaffected ATM and CHEK2 carriers: How participants make meaning of 'moderate risk' genetic results in a population breast cancer screening trial. J Genet Couns. 2022 12; 31(6):1421-1433. James JE, Riddle L, Caruncho M, Koenig BA, Joseph G. PMID: 35877161; PMCID: PMC9722572.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1 Fields:
Gen Genetics
Translation:Humans CTClinical Trials
COVID-19 and the reimaging of compassionate release. Int J Prison Health. 2023 03 16; 19(1):20-34. James JE, Foe M, Desai R, Rangan A, Price M. PMID: 35730723; PMCID: PMC10134411.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 2 Fields:
Pub Public Health
Translation:Humans PHPublic Health
Is It Ethical to Mandate Vaccination among Incarcerated Persons? Consider Enforcement and Ask People Living in Prisons and Jails. Am J Bioeth. 2022 11; 22(11):W7-W8. James JE. PMID: 35723578; PMCID: PMC10231410.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Eth Ethics
Translation:Humans Cells PHPublic Health
Guest editorial. International Journal of Prisoner Health. 2022; 18(2):117-123. Nickolas Zaller, Lisa Barry, Jane Dorotik, Jennifer James, Andrea K. Knittel, Fernando Murillo, Stephanie Grace Prost and Brie Williams. View Publication.
The Association Between Race and Place of Death Among Persons With Dementia. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2022 09; 64(3):e109-e114. Mayan I, Yaffe K, James J, Hunt LJ. PMID: 35618245; PMCID: PMC10026613.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 4 Fields:
Pal Palliative Care Psy Psychophysiology The Therapeutics
Translation:Humans
Black Feminist Bioethics: Centering Community to Ask Better Questions. Hastings Cent Rep. 2022 03; 52 Suppl 1:S21-S23. James JE. PMID: 35470879.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 5 Fields:
Eth Ethics Hea Health Services Research Psy Psychiatry
Translation:Humans
Race, Racism, and Bioethics: Are We Stuck? Am J Bioeth. 2022 03; 22(3):22-24. James JE. PMID: 35258424.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1 Fields:
Eth Ethics
Translation:Humans
The limits of personalization in precision medicine: Polygenic risk scores and racial categorization in a precision breast cancer screening trial. PLoS One. 2021; 16(10):e0258571. James JE, Riddle L, Koenig BA, Joseph G. PMID: 34714858; PMCID: PMC8555816.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 7 Fields:
Med Medicine (General)Sci Science
Translation:Humans
Pre-Appointment Nurse Navigation: Patient-Centered Findings From a Survey of Patients With Breast Cancer. Clin J Oncol Nurs. 2021 10 01; 25(5):E57-E62. Wang T, Huilgol YS, Black J, D'Andrea C, James J, Northrop A, Belkora J, Esserman LJ. PMID: 34533526.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 4 Fields:
Neo Neoplasms Nur Nursing
Translation:Humans
A Second Chance at Health. IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics. 2021; 14(2):70-80. Jennifer Elyse James. . View Publication.
Corrigendum: Creativity, Resilience and Resistance: Black Birthworkers' Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Front Sociol. 2021; 6:695303. Oparah JC, James JE, Barnett D, Jones LM, Melbourne D, Peprah S, Walker JA. PMID: 34055964; PMCID: PMC8158436.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1
Creativity, Resilience and Resistance: Black Birthworkers' Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Front Sociol. 2021; 6:636029. Oparah JC, James JE, Barnett D, Jones LM, Melbourne D, Peprah S, Walker JA. PMID: 33869584; PMCID: PMC8022614.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 6
Beyond Seeing Race: Centering Racism and Acknowledging Agency Within Bioethics. Am J Bioeth. 2021 02; 21(2):56-58. James JE, Iacopetti CL. PMID: 33534684.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1 Fields:
Eth Ethics
Translation:Humans
In Z. Luna & W. Pirtle (Eds.), Black Feminist Sociology. Black Feminist Epistemological Methodology: Bridging Theory and Methods to Research Health and Illness. 2021. Jennifer E. James. .
Regimes of Patienthood: Developing an Intersectional Concept to Theorize Illness Experiences. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. 2020; 6:185-192. Kelly Ann Joyce, Jennifer E James, Melanie Jeske.
Reinforcing Loss and Rendering Invisible: Adoptee Experience and the Structural Failings of Biomedicine. Narrat Inq Bioeth. 2018; 8(2):151-156. James J. PMID: 30220699.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 1 Fields:
Eth Ethics
Translation:Humans
What Impact Do Chaplains Have? A Pilot Study of Spiritual AIM for Advanced Cancer Patients in Outpatient Palliative Care. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017 11; 54(5):707-714. Kestenbaum A, Shields M, James J, Hocker W, Morgan S, Karve S, Rabow MW, Dunn LB. PMID: 28736103; PMCID: PMC5650916.

View in: PubMed Mentions: 13 Fields:
Pal Palliative Care Psy Psychophysiology The Therapeutics
Translation:Humans
Black Women with Advanced Cancer and the Challenge of Biomedicine: A Black Feminist Methodological Exploration of the Lived Experience of Terminal Illness. 2016. Jennifer E. James. .
"Taking your place at the table": an autoethnographic study of chaplains' participation on an interdisciplinary research team. BMC Palliat Care. 2015 May 02; 14:20. Kestenbaum A, James J, Morgan S, Shields M, Hocker W, Rabow M, Dunn LB. PMID: 25934500; PMCID: PMC4416235.

View in: PubMed Mentions: Fields:
Pal Palliative Care
Translation:Humans