Ninez Ponce, associate director and principal investigator for the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, has been appointed to the board of scientific counselors of the National Center for Statistics, a statistical agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The board is an independent 15-member group that advises the national center on various issues related to health care.
Ponce is also a member of the faculty executive committee of the UCLA Asia Pacific Center and a professor of health policy and management. Her research focuses on understanding the effects of macroeconomic challenges on health and health care access in developing countries, in low-income neighborhoods and among different racial and ethnic groups in the United States. In 2001, she helped develop the California Health Interview Survey and is now the project's principal investigator.