Dr. Elena Portacolone is a Professor of Sociology in the Institute for Health & Aging and a Pepper Center Scholar at the Division of Geriatric Medicine at UCSF. She is also affiliated with the Philip Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, and the Global Health Sciences Institute, both at UCSF. Her research aims at developing equitable policies and programs for older adults living alone with cognitive impairment in the United States, and worldwide. Dr.
Social and Behavioral Sciences, Institute for Health and Aging
Dr. Sedlander is an Assistant Professor and Social and Behavioral Scientist. Her research portfolio seeks to uncover mechanisms to help women achieve their reproductive goals throughout the life course (from pregnancy prevention to infertility prevention).
Dr. Sedlander developed and validated the G-NORM, a gender norms scale, in India, Nepal, and Uganda. As part of her dissertation, Dr. Sedlander and colleagues also implemented and evaluated a randomized controlled trial in India to improve nutritional behaviors among women using a social norms approach.
Lila Sheira, PhD MPH is an epidemiologist and Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Sheira has over a decade of experience working in community health research settings related to HIV and STI prevention, randomized controlled trials, HIV health, and sexual and reproductive health, spanning from Latin America and the Caribbean to North, East, and Southern Africa. Dr. Sheira also served as a rural community health Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador from 2009-2013 before completing her MPH at UC Berkeley from 2013-2015.
Emerson has worked at UCSF since February 2022 in the Division of Prevention Science. He has worked as a project coordinator on a study on the lived experiences of older gay men and trans women in the SF Bay Area. Previously, Emerson worked at Bay Area nonprofits serving Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities during the height of COVID. Emerson received his MPH at San Francisco State University with an interest in queer Asian American identities, health, and sexualities.
Julian Silva, MA, MT-BC, is the Project Manager for the Music & Dementia Research Network. Julian earned his master’s degree in music therapy from New York University (NYU). His music therapy training included a internship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and a field placement at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. At MSKCC his clinical experience included the use of song writing, improvisation, lyric analysis and drumming to help patients cope with the physical and psychological effects of cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Kattia Vargas, a seasoned professional, earned her B.A. in general Psychology at UCB. She previously held key roles in two departments at UCSF as a clinical research coordinator: the Institute of Global Health Sciences (IGHS) and the Department of Medicine at ZSFG. Her expertise has been pivotal in evaluating interventions aimed at reducing birth inequities in one study and understanding the impact of healthy eating and nutrition support services on the well-being of individuals with Type 2 Diabetes in another.
Thi Tran manages the data analysis for Dr. Elena Portacolone’s various projects at UCSF. Prior to joining UCSF, she worked in the corporate realm focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility; traveling extensively to different countries and regions of the Americas to ensure workers in factories are given a safe place to work, compensated fairly, and given ethical treatment by management. Thi is passionate about human rights work, and an advocate of HIV/AIDS awareness, services, and youth education prevention in the Asian community.
Janice Vong, BS, is a project policy analyst in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Institute for Health & Aging at the UCSF School of Nursing. At UCSF, she currently works on an NIH-funded project dedicated toward understanding the impact of a course-based undergraduate research experience on student integration into the scientific community.
