HRA Health Research Staff
Donna Dahrouge, MPH, is Research Analyst. She works with researchers at the center to identify new funding sources, coordinate the grant writing process and oversee pre- and post-award project administration. Before joining HRA in May 2006, she was the Assistant Director of the UC Berkeley Center for Environment Public Health Tracking. She holds an MPH degree from UC Berkeley.
Carrie Graham, PhD, MGS, is Assistant Director of Research. She is a Medical Sociologist with a background in gerontology, health communication, and health services research. Since joining HRA she has designed and directed several large-scale research projects focused on increasing access to care for seniors, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable populations. Before joining HRA in 2004, she worked as an assistant adjunct professor in the UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, implementing and evaluating a model of community-based transitional care for seniors and their caregivers. Prior to that she worked at the Polisher Research Institute in Philadelphia, contributing to a study of quality of life for seriously ill older adults. Carrie completed her doctoral work in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF. She also completed a two-year fellowship at the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies. She holds an Master's in Gerontological Studies from Miami University in Ohio and a BA in Sociology and African Studies from UC San Diego.
See Selected Published Research
Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA, Director of Research and Evaluation, is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Division of Community Health and Human Development at UC Berkeley, and teaches in the UCB/UCSF Joint Medical Program. She is conducting research in cardiovascular risks and immigrant health, and has recently been involved in examining the relationship between the built environment and physical activity in older adults and children. She has key interests in heart disease, overweight, and diabetes prevention, particularly in low-income and Asian immigrant populations. She is a researcher with CDC's Healthy Aging Research Network and has been associated with the CDC Prevention Research Center at UC Berkeley since 1997. Dr. Ivey is trained and board-certified in family medicine and practices medicine part-time with the City of Berkeley Public Health division. She has a Master's in Health Policy and Acute Health Services Management from George Washington University.
See Selected Published Research
Elaine Kurtovich, MPH, PT, is project coordinator. She has a clinical background in physical therapy. Before joining HRA in 2005, she was a field coordinator with Brenda Eskenazi's research group at UC Berkeley, worked as a health manager at a Head Start program in San Francisco's Chinatown neighborhood, and was a physical therapist in an orphanage in Tianjin, China. She holds an MPH with an emphasis in Maternal and Child Health from UC Berkeley.
McKenzie Oliver, MPH, is a Research Associate. She is currently a project coordinator for a CDC-funded Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center (PERRC) project, All-Hazards Communication to Improve the Resilience of Vulnerable Populations. The research aims to provide detailed findings about preparedness communication for Deaf/hard-of-hearing individuals and older adults. McKenzie has also worked on a variety of health literacy projects funded by the California Department of Health Care Services and the California Office of the Patient Advocate. Before joining HRA in October 2007 she was a research assistant at the San Diego State University (SDSU) Research Foundation, where she worked on community-based health interventions, including adolescent physical activity and cigarette smoking. She studied at SDSU, where she earned an MPH from the Graduate School of Public Health with an emphasis in Health Promotion, and also has a BS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Fitness, Nutrition, and Health.
Winston Tseng, PhD, is a medical sociologist with strong community-based participatory research (CBPR) experience with diverse and vulnerable populations. He conducts research on health care delivery, health disparities, community quality of life, and human development utilizing mixed methods, participatory, and organizational approaches. He has over 15 years of experience collaborating with community-based organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. His recent projects include assessments of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander health in California; social capital and interorganizational networks of community service organizations in immigrant communities; chronic care redesign for diabetes patients in a primary care setting; healthy brain and aging among diverse elderly populations; psychosocial and service needs for multiethnic elderly populations transitioning from hospital to home; evaluation of community health center services and quality improvement through secondary data analyses of large patient datasets; and mapping of medically underserved communities to identify primary care delivery gaps using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Dr. Tseng provides regular training to staff (Master's level and graduate student) and undergraduate students on research methods and analysis, including how to conduct interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. He also specializes in organizational-level analysis including a research focus on community services organizations and interorganizational networks. Dr. Tseng currently serves as Co-Chair of the Health Working Group of the University of California Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Multicampus Research Program, Research Consultant for the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) and the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), and advisor on the CBPR subcommittee of National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.