Colette (Coco) is an Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and Director of the UC Berkeley–UCSF Joint Medical Program. She holds academic positions at both the Berkeley and San Francisco campuses of the University of California. She is a pediatrician specialized in adolescent medicine. Her research consistently focuses on the social determinants of health of our society’s most disadvantaged youth and on structural interventions to positively impact on their health while employing a community collaborative and youth-engaged approach. She is the co-founder and co-director of i4Y (Innovations for Youth) and the faculty lead for the Ending

Jared Martin, PhD, received his doctorate from Ohio State University in Human Development and Family Science. His research focus covers two areas: (1) housing and related supportive interventions for youth and families experiencing homelessness and housing instability, and (2) implementation science in human service organizations. His dissertation used mixed methods to understand the influence of system-level factors on the adoption of evidence-based practices among organizations serving youth and young adults experiencing homelessness. He has also conducted research on youth attitudes toward service providers, a tailored Housing First approach for youth populations, and implementation of a cross-system intervention to support vulnerable

Joseph Tay Wee Teck (Joe Tay) is a 2023–24 U.K. Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice. Joe Tay will be part of the BHHI Postdoctoral Program from August 21, 2023 to July 31, 2024. He has been a general practitioner (family doctor) working with marginalized groups and populations in Edinburgh for over 15 years. During the pandemic, he was part of the Edinburgh inclusion health initiative to provide primary and addiction care to people experiencing homelessness. He also specializes in addiction medicine and is currently the clinical services director for Forward Leeds, the second largest integrated addiction care

Lourdes Johanna Avelar Portillo earned her PhD in the Population, Health and Place at the University of Southern California where she focused on addressing interim-level needs, specifically drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) service needs of unhoused communities in Los Angeles. Prior to USC, Johanna earned her MA in Geography at Cal State Long Beach where she explored the intersections of gender, emotional geographies, and household water insecurity in rural communities of Santo Tomas, El Salvador. Johanna earned her BA in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. These research experiences have shaped Johanna’s research interests

Dr. Margaret Handley is a public heath-trained epidemiologist in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Medicine. She is core faculty at the Center for Vulnerable Populations and at the Benioff Housing and Homelessness Initiative. Dr. Handley’s research focuses on bridging the fields of primary care, public health, and health communication for improving health outcomes and equity. She co-directs the UCSF PRISE Center, Partnerships for Research in Implementation Science for Equity) which focuses on applying implementation science methods to meet the challenges of inequitable health and health care. At BHHI she is one of the Principal Investigators along with Drs

Margot Kushel, MD, is Professor of Medicine at UCSF, Division Chief of the Center for Vulnerable Populations, and Director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG). Her research focuses on reducing the burden of homelessness on health through examining efforts to prevent and end homelessness and mitigating its effects on health care outcomes. Margot is a primary care physician at ZSFG’s Richard H. Fine People's Clinic. A leading homelessness researcher, her research has been funded by the NIH, government, and foundations. Margot is quoted frequently in the press. She provides

Mark Hawes, PhD, MSW, is a mixed methods social work researcher focused on eliminating barriers to tobacco and substance use treatment among unhoused communities and those living in permanent supportive housing. He holds a joint appointment as a post-doctoral fellow at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) and the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education (CTCRE). Dr. Hawes is currently working on a mixed-methods study with permanent supportive housing residents that seeks to understand treatment needs centered on the co-use of tobacco with other substances. The goal is to increase the availability of services that integrate tobacco

Dr. Vijayaraghavan is a practicing general internist at the San Francisco General Hospital and a researcher in tobacco control with a focus on populations experiencing homelessness. Dr. Vijayaraghavan's intervention research stems from collaborations with community organizations. As PI of two grants (22XT-0020, 25CP-0002) from the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program, she collaborated with homeless shelters and supportive housing programs to implement interventions to increase access to cessation services and smoke-free policies among homeless clients. As co-investigator (PI Satterfield, DA034253-04) on an implementation and dissemination grant on a randomized controlled trial of computer-facilitated delivery of 5As for smoking cessation, she worked

Dr. Morris’ professional activities are grounded in engaging diverse partners in the development of evidence-based policy change to reduce social inequalities and improve health among underserved communities. As an Associate Professor, Dr. Morris’ research focuses on applying epidemiological methods to study the impact of individual, social, and structural factors on disease transmission within marginalized populations. In particular, her work has focused on using qualitative and quantitative methods to examine social determinants of health within people who use drugs, including HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, worldwide. Internationally Dr. Morris has collaborated with researchers to carry out HIV and HCV

Ryan Assaf, PhD, MPH is a second-year postdoctoral fellow with BHHI. He received his PhD in Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health where he also received his MPH and earned his BS at the University of California, Irvine. Ryan’s work applies community-engaged practices, social determinants of health frameworks, and epidemiological methods to examine the intersections of infectious diseases, substance use and drug-related overdose, and sexual health among people experiencing homelessness and sexual and gender diverse populations. Prior to joining BHHI, Ryan was an epidemiologist at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. With nearly a