Dr. Mohammadi is a physician-scientist and an Early Career Investigator with over 12 years of experience in clinical vascular studies including pre-doctoral work with much of it focused on studying vascular effects of tobacco and marijuana exposure. She has clinical and research background in cardiac arrhythmias, hypertension, and endothelial dysfunction. Dr. Mohammadi is leading the UCSF CANDIDE study, which investigates the effects of chronic cannabis use on vascular function.
Dr. Philbin is a social and behavioral scientist who uses mixed methods to examine how social policies and clinical practice shapes inclusion and health equity with a focus on substance use and HIV/AIDS. She has worked in the field of health disparities for over 15 years conducting research that explores how community-, institutional-, and state-level factors drive health outcomes among sexual and gender minority (SGM) young people and pregnant people. Dr.
Sabrina Islam, PhD received her doctorate in Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences) with a Graduate Certificate in Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies from the University of Florida. Prior to joining the CTCRE in August 2022, she completed a training fellowship in prevention science and alcohol research at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Islam is interested in qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to studying differential patterns of risk associated with substance use and structural levels of stigma among sexual and gender minority populations.
Dian Gu, PhD, received her doctorate in Health Economics/Health Services Research from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Along with her PhD study, she was a PhD trainee in MD Anderson Cancer Center. In that role, she gained experience in applying health economics to cancer research, collaborating on manuscripts with clinicians on multiple projects concerned with cancer patients’ healthcare utilization, expenditures, and health outcomes.
Assistant Research Scientist, San Francisco VA Medical Center
Medicine
Vira Pravosud, PhD, received her doctorate in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Kentucky. Having obtained an undergraduate degree in Social Work & Sociology and a Master’s degree in Healthcare Management and Administration from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv, Dr. Pravosud came to the U.S. in 2014 as a Fulbright Scholar from Ukraine pursuing more expertise in public health research.
Sheiphali Gandhi, MD, is a pulmonologist specializing in occupational and environmental respiratory disease. She graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine in 2012. She went to the University of Minnesota for her internal medicine residency and global health chief residency during which she received her Certificate in Tropical Medicine through the Center of Disease Control and American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Dr. John Kane is an endocrinologist and director of the UCSF Lipid Clinic. He is also an associate director of the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute.
Kane's research on lipoprotein metabolism, the management of lipoprotein disorders, and the genetic basis of heart disease and stroke is known worldwide through his publications in refereed journals and book chapters.
Dr. Cohen is an internist and clinical investigator whose research focuses on health outcomes in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder. She is Principal Investigator of the Mind Your Heart Study, a prospective cohort study designed to examine the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder on cardiovascular health.
Donald I. Abrams, M.D. is an integrative oncologist at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He was Chief of Hematology-Oncology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General from 2003-2017. He graduated from Brown University in 1972 and from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1977. After completing an Internal Medicine residency at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco, he became a fellow in Hematology-Oncology at UCSF in 1980. During his fellowship, Dr.
Dr. Salomeh Keyhani is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the Director of the Center for Data to Discovery and Delivery Innovation, a VA-funded Center of Innovation focused on improving health and health care delivery. The Center brings together 27 UCSF investigators engaged in Health Systems Research (HSR) and supports research and training that advances patient centered health behavior change.
