Denise D. Payán, PhD, MPP
Faculty Director
Dr. Denise D. Payán is Cal-IHEA’s Faculty Director. She served as Cal-IHEA’s Deputy Director between 2020- 2022. Dr. Payán is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Society and Behavior and leads the Community Health & Innovative Policy (CHIP) Lab at UC Irvine. As a health policy researcher, her interests include examining health policymaking and implementation; evaluating interventions to address obesity and nutrition-related health disparities; and understanding how policy impacts health behavior.
Dr. Payán obtained a PhD in Public Policy and Management from USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and MPP from Harvard Kennedy School. She received a BA in History and Science from Harvard College. She was an AHRQ T-32 funded Health Services Research postdoctoral scholar in the Dept. of Health Policy and Management at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the RAND Corporation (2015-2017). She was an Assistant Professor at UC Merced (2017-2021).
Rose Ruiz, MPH
Project Analyst
Rose Ruiz is Cal-IHEA’s Project Analyst. She graduated from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health with an MPH from the Department of Community Health Sciences in 2023. Rose also received her BA in Sociology with a minor in Global Health from UCLA.
Before obtaining her MPH, Rose worked with community members in Los Angeles as a case manager and patient care coordinator. In graduate school, Rose was a student researcher and helped to support the creation of six certificate programs across public health emergency preparedness and response areas for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) TRAIN platform. She also interned with AltaMed’s Business Growth and Innovation Department, where she executed and analyzed programs, project plans, metrics, and acquisitions with various departments across the organization.
Dylan Roby, PhD
Faculty Associate – Health Care Policy
Dylan H. Roby, PhD, interim chair and professor of health, society, and behavior at the University of California, Irvine Program in Public Health, has over 25 years of expertise in health policy research, reform, and capacity-building in settings from Capitol Hill to academia. He has dedicated his career to addressing disparities in health care outcomes and focuses his research primarily on the health policy impacts on underserved populations, namely those served by public hospitals, community health centers, and Medi-Cal.
During his time in Washington, DC, Dr. Roby worked for the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Governors’ Association’s Center for Best Practices, and the Progressive Policy Institute. Prior to that, he was a research assistant at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Roby graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in geography and a minor in public policy. He earned his doctoral degree in public policy from The George Washington University.
Hector P. Rodriguez, PhD, MPH
Senior Advisor
Dr. Hector P. Rodriguez is Cal-IHEA’s Senior Advisor. He was the founding and inaugural Faculty Director of Cal-IHEA (2019-2022). Dr. Rodriguez is the Kaiser Permanente Endowed Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Director of the Center for Healthcare Organizational and Innovation Research (CHOIR) at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Dr. Rodriguez’s expertise is in organizational analysis and performance measurement in health care delivery and local public health systems. He has published extensively on the measurement of patient care experiences, the impact of delivery system interventions on patient outcomes, and health care disparities among U.S. Latinos. He received is BA in Urban Studies and Planning from UC San Diego, MPH in Health Policy and Administration from UC Berkeley, and PhD in Health Policy/ Medical Sociology from Harvard University. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and recipient of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration’s Prize.
Madelyn Jannel Olmos-Rodriguez
Graduate Student Researcher
Madelyn is a Master of Public Health student with an emphasis in Sociocultural Diversity and Health at UC Irvine. Madelyn earned her BA in both Social Welfare and Public Health from UC Berkeley. She has a background in qualitative research focusing on the intertwinement between patient-provider relationships and self-management of chronic disease. Her research and policy interests lie in health prevention and promotion amongst medically vulnerable communities.
Local Health Equity & Policy Research Team
Irene Yen, PhD, MPH
UC Merced Research Lead
Dr. Irene Yen is a Professor in the Department of Public Health in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts at UC Merced. She is a social epidemiologist with research expertise in survey design and development and qualitative research methods. Her research focuses on the social determinants of health with emphases on how neighborhood environment influences health behaviors and health status and the intersections of race/ethnicity and social class. She has also led a variety of research projects that investigate neighborhood environment and health. Dr. Yen is a Robert Wood Johnson Interdisciplinary Research Leadership fellow alumna.
Andy Subica, PhD
UC Riverside Research Co-Lead
Dr. Andrew (Andy) Subica is a health services researcher and associate professor of Social Medicine & Population Health at UC Riverside’s School of Medicine. He is a former post doctoral research scholar at LMU-PARC. His current research addresses the intersection of health and mental health disparities among vulnerable populations including persons of color, individuals with psychiatric disabilities, survivors of trauma, individuals experiencing homelessness, and refugees. Other areas of specialty/interest include improving evidence-based treatments, services, and public policies for underserved individuals using community-based participatory action research, deliberative, and mixed methodologies, as well as multiracial identity, acculturation, and well-being, clinical assessment, and spirituality for culturally responsive stress coping and wellness.
Aerika B. Loyd, PhD
UC Riverside Research Co-Lead
Dr. Aerika Brittian Loyd is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at UC Riverside. Dr. Loyd is an interdisciplinary, community-engaged developmental scientist who employs psychology, human development, and prevention science theories to understand how intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and identity inform health and development for youth and young adults of color (e.g., African American and Latinx).
Graduate Research Fellows
Tessa Pulido, MPH, CPH
Graduate Research Fellow (UC Irvine)
Tessa Pulido is a Public Health PhD student at UC Irvine. She completed her B.A. in Public Health Policy and Education Sciences, and her Master’s in Public Health (MPH) at UC Irvine. Her research examines the impact of gentrification on food insecurity using a structural determinants of health perspective. She is also an Environmental Racism and Health Equity fellow through the Center of Environmental Health Disparities at UCI where she receives funding to examine ways to improve the implementation of an existing food distribution at a church in South Los Angeles.
Josh Murillo, MA
Graduate Research Fellow (UC Riverside)
Josh Murillo is a doctoral student in health psychology at UC Riverside. Josh earned his master’s degree in psychology from California State University, Long Beach. His research and passion is inspired upon equality and giving back to ethnic minority marginalized communities for his daughter and future generations. Josh’s research interests focus on health inequalities, adverse health outcomes, and community participatory action research among marginalized communities.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Kemberly Aguilar
Undergraduate Research Assistant (UC Irvine)
Kemberly Aguilar is a University of California, Irvine student pursuing an undergraduate degree in Public Health with a minor in Health Informatics and Medical Anthropology. Her career goal is to become a public health nurse and help low-income communities access equitable healthcare. Kemberly is also a part of the UC Prime Pre-health Pathways (UCPPP) program.
Elyza Puerto
Undergraduate Research Assistant (UC Irvine)
Elyza Puerto is majoring in B.S. Psychology with a minor in Public Health. Her interests include substance use, behavioral health, and the importance of mental health. She hopes to pursue a career as a clinical or health psychologist in the future and is part of inaugural cohort of the UC PRIME Pre-Health Pathways (UCPPP) program.
Sofia Aguilar
Undergraduate Research Assistant (UC Merced)
Sofia Aguilar is a third-year student at the University of California, Merced, pursuing an undergraduate degree in Public Health with a minor in Psychology. As a person passionate about public health promotion, Sofia plans to pursue a PhD after her bachelor’s degree in hopes of helping underserved communities at a local and global level.
Kimberly Montanez
Undergraduate Research Assistant (UC Merced)
Kimberly Montanez is a fourth year Public Health student at UC Merced. She is working on a collaborative project with Dr. Irene Yen (UC Merced) and the CHIP Lab through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC) – Learning Aligned Employment Program (LAEP). Kimberly intends to pursue an MPH and obtain a career that works closely with communities in the Central Valley.