Special Assistant to the ChancellorDistinguished Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, College of Letters and ScienceDistinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management, Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public HealthDirector, UCLA BRITE Center for Science, Research & PolicyMember, UCLA Wooden Center Board of GovernorsMember UC Systemwide Health Care Task ForceFormer Chair/Vice Chair/Past Chair, UCLA Academic SenateFormer Chair, UCLA Committee on CommitteesFormer Chair, UCLA Undergraduate CouncilFormer President, UCLA Faculty Center Board of GovernorsFormer Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Diversitywww.MinorityHealthDisparities.org

PRIM&R is dedicated to an area of interest and expertise for me which is that of research ethics as they apply to racial/ethnic and other vulnerable populations. PRIM&R's founders were keenly aware of new research regulations developed in response to the exposé of the United States Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. That abuse plus revelations of other ethical violations led to the passage of the National Research Act in 1974. Regulations (45 CFR part 46) governing the protection of human subjects and mandating institutional review boards (IRBs) were also enacted that year to be followed by The Belmont Report in 1979. Both a new field and PRIM&R as a formal organization were born that same year and their synergies have remained strong and constructive.From the outset, professionals working with or affected by IRBs struggled to interpret and apply the new regulatory structures. PRIM&R’s Board of Directors understood that education was the most effective means of easing the process and promoting ethical behavior. PRIM&R’s first conference on human subjects protections in 1977 and was quickly embraced by the research community and federal regulatory agencies as an opportunity to discuss the evolving research rules. Subsequent conferences steadily grew in size and reputation. Buoyed by this early success, the board expanded PRIM&R’s programming to other areas, including institutional animal care and use committees (IACUCs), ethics of HIV/AIDS research, research with special populations, and responsible conduct of research. As a board member my goal is to contribute to the great beginnings of this Board

The NCVHS serves as the statutory [42 U.S.C. 242k(k)]public advisory body to the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the area of health data and statistics. In that capacity, the Committee provides advice and assistance to the Department and serves as a forum for interaction with interested private sector groups on a variety of key health data issues. The Committee assists and advises the Secretary of HHS on health data, , statistics, privacy, national health information policy, and the Department's strategy to best address those issues.

As a Fellow in the Rand Santa Monica Health Policy Program I took courses at UCLA's School of Public Health in Health Services and the Rand Graduate School. My focus was on the methodological tools for policy analysis in minority health and behavioral health and epidemiology.