Professor Ninez Ponce in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has been named director of the school's Center for Global and Immigrant Health, effective July 1.
On faculty in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Ponce has led pioneering efforts in multicultural survey research, including measures of racial/ethnic identity, acculturation, generational status and discrimination. Focusing on understanding the effects of macroeconomic changes on health and health care access in developing countries and low-income neighborhoods, and among racial/ethnic groups in the United States, her research has been recognized by the National Institute of Aging, National Cancer Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other organizations.
Ponce currently serves as principal investigator for the California Health Interview Survey at the Center for Health Policy Research, where she devised the rationale and implementation of Asian ethnic oversamples and the cultural and linguistic adaptation of the survey in Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.
In a letter announcing Ponce's appointment, Fielding School Dean Jody Heymann noted, “With Dr. Ponce's leadership, the Center is poised to grow its excellence in training its students in global and immigrant health, and supporting faculty and student research in global and immigrant health."