Principal Investigator
Denise Diaz Payán PhD, MPP, is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Health, Society, and Behavior at UC Irvine. She is the founder of the Community Health & Innovative Policy (CHIP) Lab. Dr. Payán obtained a PhD in Public Policy and Management from USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School. She received a BA in History and Science, Certificate in Health Policy, and Citation in Spanish from Harvard College. She was a Health Services Research postdoctoral scholar in the Dept. of Health Policy and Management at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the RAND Corporation and tenure-track faculty at UC Merced (2017-2021).
Postdoctoral Scholar
Ana Herrera PhD, MPH, is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Public Health at UC Irvine. She is a mixed-methods health disparities researcher, with 13+ years of experience working with government, philanthropic, and non-profit organizations. In the CHIP Lab, she focus on policy implementation research to improve our understanding of how policy impacts can promote health and reduce inequities. She earned her PhD in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Texas at Austin and an MPH from the University of Texas School of Public Health. She received a BA in Psychology and Latino Studies from CSULB. She is an alumna of the CDC Public Health Scholars Program and RWJF Health Policy Research Scholars Program. In her spare time, Ana enjoys reading, baking, and traveling the world.
Graduate Student Researcher/s
Tessa Pulido MPH, CPH is a Public Health PhD student at UC Irvine. She completed her B.A. in Public Health Policy and Education Sciences and MPH at UC Irvine. Her research examines the relationship between gentrification and food insecurity. She was an Environmental Racism and Health Equity fellow through UC Irvine’s Center of Environmental Health Disparities.
Ethan Nguyen is an MPH student concentrating in epidemiology at UC Irvine. Ethan graduated with a major in Public Health Sciences and a minor in Medical Humanities from UC Irvine. His interests include drug use, epidemiology, public health policy, and the medical humanities. In the CHIP lab, he works on a flavor ban tobacco policy implementation study.
Kalani Phillips MPH, CPH is a PhD student in Public Health at UC Irvine. She completed her B.A. in Public Health Policy and MPH at UC Irvine. She investigates structural barriers that young adults face when accessing medication abortion, reasons why certain individuals choose telehealth to obtain an abortion, and policies/resources for UC campus survivors of sexual violence and assault. In the CHIP lab, she is helping to conduct a nutrition environment assessment of food pantries in Orange County, CA.