People

The Center faculty come from all four UCSF schools and conduct research and teaching in every aspect of tobacco control, from efforts by the tobacco industry to manipulate international politics to the molecular biology of nicotine addiction.

 

Jelena Mustra Rakic, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar
Cardiovascular Research Inst

Jelena Mustra Rakic, PhD, received her PhD in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition from Tufts University in Boston. Her dissertation was focused on elucidating the effect and mechanisms of the naturally occurring carotenoid, lycopene, on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung carcinogenesis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The important finding from her PhD implicated smoking-related alterations in lipid metabolism as one of main pathways leading to chronic inflammation and lung diseases development.

Nhung Nguyen, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor
Medicine

Nhung Nguyen, PhD, received her doctorate in Epidemiology from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX, and her BS in Pharmacy from Hanoi University of Pharmacy, Vietnam. Her dissertation was among the first to examine smoking prevalence, nicotine dependence, and related factors among HIV-positive people in Vietnam. Her research interests include application of technology and data science in smoking cessation intervention among smokers with polysubstance use, and in smoking prevention among youth and young adults. 

Tung Nguyen, MD

Professor
Medicine

Dr. Nguyen is the Stephen J. McPhee, MD Endowed Chair in General Internal Medicine and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). A general internist with a panel of diverse patients, Dr. Nguyen teaches medical students and residents about medicine, health disparities, and community-based participatory research (CBPR).

Andre Luiz Oliveira da Silva, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar
Cardiovascular Research Inst

Andre Luiz Oliveira da Silva, PhD received his doctorate from Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca in 2019 with a specialization in public health. Dr. Oliveira da Silva joined the CTCRE in June 2022. As the Tobacco Center's first Briger Fellow, he anticipates spending one year in the Tobacco Control Research Fellowship both gaining from our faculty's expertise and sharing his rich experiences in tobacco control research from his homeland of Brazil. Dr. Oliveira da Silva will be mentored by Stella Bialous, DrPH, FAAN, also from Brazil.

Daniel Orenstein, JD, MPH

Postdoctoral Scholar
Institute for Health Policy Studies

Daniel G. Orenstein, JD, MPH, received a law degree from Arizona State University (2011), an MPH in Health Policy from Harvard (2016), and a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Arizona (2005).  Following law school, Dan served as Deputy Director of the Network for Public Health Law in the Western Region, providing technical assistance on a wide variety of public health legal issues.

Morgan Philbin, PhD, MHS

Assistant Professor
Medicine

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.

Vira Pravosud, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar
Cardiovascular Research Inst

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.

Danielle Ramo-Larios, PhD

Associate Professor
Psychiatry

Dr. Danielle Ramo is Associate Professor in Residence and licensed psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF. She directs the Research on Addictions and Digital Interventions lab (readi.ucsf.edu), and co-directs the Psychiatry Digital Health Core (http://psychdhc.ucsf.edu). Her research program focuses on using digital media to understand and address risky drug and alcohol use. Dr.

Poonam Rao, MD

Access Extension
M_MED-CORE-CARD

Poonam Rao, MD, graduated as a MBBS from Pt. B.D Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, India in 2016. After graduation, she worked for some time as a General Physician in rural India. She moved to the United States in 2017 to pursue higher education as a physician-scientist, and complete clinical observerships in Jackson Health System, Miami, and Cleveland Clinic, Florida. As she wants to stay at the boundary between research and clinical practice in the long term, after some clinical training, she pivoted towards research.

Rita Redberg, MD, MS

Professor
Medicine

Dr. Rita Redberg is a cardiologist, and directs women’s cardiovascular services and the UCSF Flight Attendant Clinic. Her research interests are in the effects of secondhand smoke and other work related conditions (radiation) on flight attendants, as well as in technology assessment and preventive cardiology. Rita Redberg is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the UCSF School of Medicine and is also Director of Women’s Cardiovascular Services. She is the Editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Sujatha Sankaran, MD

Associate Professor
Medicine

Sujatha Sankaran is an Associate Professor of Medicine with the Division of Hospital Medicine. She received her medical degree from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and subsequently completed her training in Internal Medicine at the Georgetown Universty/Washington Hospital Center program in June 2005. She then worked as an Academic Hospitalist at Columbia University in New York City, where she was actively involved in resident education. Subsequently, Sujatha volunteered in sub Saharan Africa.

Jason Satterfield, PhD

Dir of Behavioral Medicine
Medicine

Jason M. Satterfield is the Academy Endowed Chair for Innovation in Teaching, Director of Behavioral Medicine and Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He received his B.S. in brain sciences from MIT and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr.

Pages