The quality and importance of the work we do hinges on the diverse skills, passion, and innovation of Health Research for Action's remarkable staff.
Diana Darab, PhD
Director of Operations
Carrie Graham, PhD, MGS
Assistant Director of Research
Maria G. Hernandez, PhD
Special Advisor
Debbie Huang
Staff Research Associate
Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA
Director of Research
Elaine Kurtovich, MPH, PT
Project Manager
Shelley Martin, MPH
Special Advisor on International Affairs
Linda Neuhauser, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator / Health Literacy Projects |
Serena Quiroga
Financial and Administrative Assistant
William Satariano, PhD, MPH
Affiliated Faculty
Katherine M. Simpson, MA
Director of Communications
Karen Sokal-Gutierrez, MD, MPH
Affiliated Faculty
Andrea Spurgeon, MA
Communications Manager / Webmaster
S. Leonard Syme, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator
Michelle Ta
Office Manager
Winston Tseng, PhD
Research Sociologist |
Principal Investigators
Linda Neuhauser, DrPH, is Clinical Professor of Community Health and Human Development at UC Berkeley and Co-Principal Investigator at Health Research for Action. Her research and teaching are focused on transdisciplinary, translational, and participatory approaches to improve health interventions. She has a special interest in collaborative design and evaluation of mass communication that meets people's literacy, language, cultural, disability, and other needs. In addition to her work at HRA, she serves on national task forces on translational research, communication, and Internet health. She has won numerous awards for her work in health promotion and communication. She formerly served as a health officer in the US State Department in West and Central Africa. She holds DrPH and MPH degrees from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. (Publications)
S. Leonard Syme, PhD, is Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health (Emeritus) in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. During more than 20 years as Co-Principal Investigator at HRA, he has worked on developing community interventions to prevent disease and promote health. Pursuing his research interest on the relationship between health and such psychosocial factors as poverty, stress and social isolation, he has studied San Francisco bus drivers, civil servants in London, and Japanese living in Japan, Hawaii, and San Francisco. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science and won the J. D. Bruce Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine from the American College of Physicians, as well as the Wade Hampton Frost Award from the American Public Health Association for developing the field of Social Epidemiology. Len holds a PhD in Medical Sociology from Yale University, following a BA and an MA in Anthropology and Sociology at UCLA. (Publications)
Diana Darab, PhD, is the Director of Operations. Diana joined HRA in 2006, and since then she has been collaborating with the management team to promote public health. Diana has a PhD in comparative literature from the University of California, Riverside. She has taught courses on the modern English novel, and literary criticism. A collection of her poetry will be published in April 2012.
Carrie Graham, PhD, MGS, is Assistant Director of Research. She is a medical sociologist with a background in gerontology, health communication, and health services research. Since joining HRA she has designed and directed several large-scale research projects focused on increasing access to care for seniors, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable populations. Dr. Graham has a dual appointment in the School of Social Welfare, where she is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services, collaborating on studies that examine new models to promote aging in place for older adults. Before joining HRA in 2004, she worked as an assistant adjunct professor in the UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, implementing and evaluating a model of community-based transitional care for seniors and their caregivers. Prior to that she worked at the Polisher Research Institute in Philadelphia, contributing to a study of quality of life for seriously ill older adults. Carrie completed her doctoral work in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF. She also completed a two-year fellowship at the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies. She holds an Master's in Gerontological Studies from Miami University in Ohio and a BA in Sociology and African Studies from UC San Diego.
(Publications) Maria Hernandez, PhD, is a Special Advisor at HRA. Dr. Hernandez consults with senior executives in Fortune 100 companies, public entities, foundations and non profits. Her work focuses on large scale change initiatives, executive development and a wide range of human capital development efforts. Most recently she has developed a training and awareness program for organizations called, “Choice Points for Health” which promotes improved awareness of manager’s role a healthy and productive workplace culture. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Maria taught at the Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute for Policy Studies at the Goldman School of Public Policy. Maria is both a Danforth Fellow and American Psychological Association Minority Fellow and holds a doctorate in community psychology. Dr. Hernandez has also provided regular commentaries to the Perspective Series of KQED FM in San Francisco and occasionally to Latino USA of Public Radio International.
Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA, is Director of Research and Evaluation at HRA and Associate Professor, adjunct, in the Division of Community Health and Human Development at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She also teaches in the UCB/UCSF Joint Medical Program. She is conducting health disparities research with a focus on chronic disease risks in immigrant groups to the US. She has key interests in heart disease, diabetes prevention, and other chronic conditions, particularly in low-income and Asian immigrant populations. She is a researcher with CDC's Healthy Aging Research Network and is interested in aging in immigrant populations. Dr. Ivey is trained and board-certified in family medicine and practices medicine part-time with the City of Berkeley Public Health division. She has a Master's in Health Policy and Acute Health Services Management from George Washington University.
(Publications) Elaine Kurtovich, MPH, PT, is a staff research associate. She has a clinical background in physical therapy. Before joining HRA in 2005, she was a field coordinator with Brenda Eskenazi's research group at UC Berkeley, worked as a health manager at a Head Start program in San Francisco's Chinatown neighborhood, and was a physical therapist in an orphanage in Tianjin, China. She holds an MPH with an emphasis in Maternal and Child Health from UC Berkeley. At HRA, she has provided project management and data analysis on several HRA projects, including studies examining the association between the built environment and physical activity, an evaluation of a diabetes care model implemented among Chinese Americans at a community clinic, and research on Medi–Cal beneficiaries who are seniors and people with disabilities and their experiences with Medi-Cal Managed Care.
(Publications) Serena Quiroga, is a recent graduate from UC Berkeley, where she completed two undergraduate degrees in Rhetoric and Peace and Conflict Studies, while double minoring in Global Poverty and Practice and LGBT Studies. Before joining the HRA Finance and Admin team, she interned at a community-based organization focused on empowerment and education efforts for Burmese migrants living in southern Thailand. Specifically, she worked on the development of their newly established women’s center, as well as assisting in the planning of a participatory-research approach to understanding local policy reform for immigrant documentation status. Upon returning to the US, she also served as an Operations intern for a non-profit under the Earth Island Institute, which focused on rights to water, land, and food security for indigenous women around the world. She plans to attend graduate school, to pursue a Ph.D. in International Development, where she intends to study the role of women in post-conflict reconstruction and poverty-alleviation in Latin America.
Katherine M. Simpson, MA, is Director of Health Communications. She has 30 years of experience developing health promotion programs and resources. Before joining HRA in 2000, she was Director of Education at Planned Parenthood: Shasta Diablo. She has also practiced as a Marriage and Family Therapist and consulted on sexuality and disability issues. She holds an MA in Psychology from John F. Kennedy University and a BA in English from Reed College.
Andrea Spurgeon, MA, is Principal Analyst and Webmaster at Health Research for Action. She manages research and intervention projects relating to environmental health, aging, and health education outreach. Ms. Spurgeon conducts usability testing, designs and administers data systems, and conducts literature reviews and data analysis. She is also HRA’s webmaster, writing and updating content for the Center’s website, and recently led the development of a key-word searchable research database for HRA and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Before joining HRA in 2005, Ms. Spurgeon was an analyst at the UC Office of the President's California Policy Research Center, where she managed the research grants program, provided technical assistance to state government officials in a wide range of topic areas, developed a database of UC policy expertise, and organized conferences and issue briefings for state policymakers. Andrea holds a masters degree in Sociology from St. Patrick's University in Ireland and a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley.
Winston Tseng, PhD, is Research Sociologist of Community Health and Human Development at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He has a background in medical sociology and extensive community-based participatory research (CBPR) experience with diverse and vulnerable populations. He conducts research on community-initiated health interventions, health care delivery, and health disparities, using mixed methods, participatory, and organizational approaches. He has over 15 years of experience collaborating with community-based organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. His recent projects include assessments of Asian-American, Native-Hawaiian, and Pacific-Islander (AA and NHPI) health in California; development of a national strategy for research capacity building of community service organizations in AA and NHPI communities; chronic care redesign for diabetes patients in a primary care setting; healthy brain and aging among diverse elderly populations; evaluation of community health center services and quality improvement through secondary data analyses of large patient datasets; and mapping of medically underserved communities to identify primary care delivery gaps using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Dr. Tseng provides regular training to graduate and undergraduate students on research methods and analysis, including how to conduct interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. He also specializes in organizational-level analysis with a research focus on community services organizations and inter-organizational networks. Dr. Tseng currently serves as Chair-Elect of the Community Health Planning and Policy Development Section of the American Public Health Association, Co-Chair of the Health Working Group of the University of California Asian-American and Pacific-Islander Policy Multicampus Research Program, Research Consultant for the Asian and Pacific-Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) and the Association of Asian-Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO), and as grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health. (Publications)
*Special Advisors
Shelley Martin, MPH, is a special advisor on international affairs to Health Research for Action (HRA) at the University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Martin served as Executive Director of HRA from 2003-2010. She provides leadership for resource and program development for national and international programs and is a contributing author to many of HRA’s accessible and user-friendly, multi-lingual materials, including: The Wellness Guide, Parents Guide, California’s HMO Guide, California’s HMO Guide for Medicare Recipients, Healthy Steps: A Fall-Prevention Guide for Pennsylvania. In 2002, Ms. Martin received the B. Holzer Health Literacy Award for published materials from the Institute for Healthcare Advancement. In 2004, she received the Pratt Fellowship in Melbourne, Australia, to enhance empowerment models for Australia’s community-based organizations. She is a graduate of the 2007 Global Health Leadership Forum, a joint offering between the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, bringing together international senior health care leaders to improve health care systems worldwide. She has helped design and disseminate international health literacy and wellness initiatives in Australia, Canada, China, and Switzerland. Before joining UC Berkeley, Ms. Martin had an extensive career in health promotion and consultation that included national training on HIV/AIDS prevention, improving access to health care for rural Americans, and developing the Medical Home Training model for Head Start.