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 research-backed 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 families

Jenna Birkmeyer, MPH is a statistician at BHHI. In her role, she manages data and conducts statistical analyses as part of the Quantitative Data Team. She has been involved in a variety of projects since joining BHHI in May 2020, primarily focusing on the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) and homeless mortality in San Francisco. Jenna previously served as an epidemiologist for the state of Ohio. She graduated from The Ohio State University College of Public Health with MPH and BS degrees in Environmental Health Sciences, as well as a minor in Spanish linguistics.

Jennifer Evans joined the Action Research Center for Health and the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative in April 2020 as Senior Statistician working with Dr. Margot Kushel on research studies focusing on homelessness and its effects on health. She has over 20 years of experience at UCSF providing statistical support to various epidemiologic studies. Most recently she served as principal statistician within Global Health Sciences focusing on the epidemiology of HIV and hepatitis C virus infections in marginalized populations. She holds a Master of Science in Epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and

Jesica Giannola currently works as a health coach at the UCSF Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, providing support and resources to people working to stop smoking while managing the complexities of homelessness. She previously served as a Housing Case Manager with survivors of recent wildfires and has served as part of a network of volunteers who regularly provide resources, showers, meals, and advocacy support to those living in encampments. She began this grassroots advocacy work during her previous job as a Disaster Case Manager, where she provided outreach to wildfire survivors living in local encampments. Jesica uses her experiences of growing

John Weeks has been with UCSF for 11 years. His most recent research project involved the study of homelessness among people age 50 and older in Oakland, CA. Prior to that, John had worked as a Project Coordinator for the Bruthas Project, which was a CAPS intervention study focusing on HIV prevention among MSM populations in San Francisco and Oakland. John joined Dr. Kushel's HOPE HOME Study in August 2015 as a Clinical Research Coordinator.

Joseph Tay Wee Teck (Joe Tay) is a 2023–24 U.K. Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice. Joe Tay was part of the BHHI Postdoctoral Program from August 21, 2023 to September, 2024. He has been a general practitioner (family doctor) working with under-resourced groups and populations in Edinburgh for over 15 years. During the pandemic, he was part of the Edinburgh 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 service in England

Kenny is the Co-Director of Research Operations at BHHI. He began working at UCSF in 2013 as an intern while attending UC Berkeley for his bachelor's degree in Psychology and Peace and Conflict Studies. He has since served as an Assistant CRC, CRC, Project Manager, and Senior Project Manager. Kenny holds an MPH from UC Berkeley. His primary professional and academic interests focus on using research methods to work with and for homeless populations and groups facing longstanding obstacles within the San Francisco Bay Area.

Layan Kaileh is a Project Manager for the Advance Care Planning in Permanent Supportive Housing Project (ACP-PSH) at BHHI and was previously the Operations Manager for the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH). Prior to joining BHHI, Layan led various research projects including the Demographic Survey as part of the PIT Count in LA County. Layan has a passion for our unhoused neighbors across the nation and strives to understand the barriers and solutions. Working with many populations, she believes that housing is a human right, and hopes to capture individual's voices through research to inform best policies

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 residents in Los Angeles. Prior to USC, Johanna earned her MA in Geography at Cal State Long Beach where she explored the intersections of demographics, emotional geographies, and household water insecurity in rural areas 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

Ludmilla Bade is a second-generation Californian who has lived and worked in Alameda, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. She is currently living near Santa Rosa, California where she is a returning student majoring in social and behavioral science. After graduating early from high school, she worked in many fields including the arts, office and accounting, food service, grocery, retail, property management, organizing and decluttering, and as a caregiver. After her father moved into assisted living, she could not afford market rents and became homeless. She moved into a small trailer which she drove to work

Marc Dones (they/them) is a Senior Advisor at BHHI. They are an American social justice advocate and policy strategist and have worked extensively in the fields of violence prevention, homelessness, affordable housing, and racial equity. Most recently, Marc served as the inaugural CEO of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, where they oversaw a $250M budget, implemented one of the best emergency housing voucher programs in the country, and advanced national models on encampment response. Marc has held leadership positions in several organizations, including the Center for Social Innovation and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and

Dr. Margaret Handley is a public health-trained epidemiologist in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Medicine. She is core faculty at the Action Research Center for Health 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 access. She co-directs the UCSF PRISE Center, which focuses on applying implementation science methods to meet the challenges of eneven health outcomes and access to care. At BHHI she is one of the Principal Investigators along with Drs. Margot Kushel and Rebecca Sudore

Margot Kushel, MD is a Professor of Medicine at University of California San Francisco, Division Chief of the Division of Health and Society, and Director of the UCSF Action Research Center for Health and the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. She is a practicing general internist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of homelessness, with the goal of preventing and ending homelessness and ameliorating the effects of homelessness on health. She is the Principal Investigator of the California State Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) and numerous NIA funded studies on

Marisa (she/her/ella) holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science from Portland State University. Prior to joining BHHI, Marisa spent years working in the nonprofit sector, in roles ranging from legislative advocacy, community organizing, fundraising, communications, and direct services. Most recently, she has worked with communities experiencing housing instability and homelessness in the Portland, Oregon metro area. As the descendant of migrant farmworkers and displaced people experiencing poverty, she is passionate about centering the voices of people with lived experience of homelessness, developing

Mark Hawes, PhD, MSW, is a mixed methods social work researcher focused on eliminating obstacles to tobacco and substance use treatment among unhoused communities and those living in permanent supportive housing. He held 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). While at BHHI, Dr. Hawes worked on a mixed-methods study with permanent supportive housing residents that sought to understand treatment needs centered on the co-use of tobacco with other substances. The goal was to increase the availability of services that integrate

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

Michael Duke is a medical anthropologist whose ethnographic and mixed-method work focuses primarily on the impact of contemporary and historical harm on the physical and behavioral health of Latine and Pacific Islander immigrant communities, particularly regarding drug and alcohol use, anxiety and depression, stress, and housing precarity. After receiving his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, he was a researcher at the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, CT, where he directed several studies on HIV risk among heroin injectors, and was the PI for a series of NIH-funded binational studies focusing on drinking, masculinity, and HIV risk among

Michelle S. Ochoa is a Housing Technician for the City of Roseville, California. She is passionate about working with the community and connecting people to the housing resources that they need. She experienced homelessness from ages 14-30. During this time, she longed for resources to help her get rehoused but didn’t know where to look. This lived experience inspired her to seek out employment with the government to help others navigate housing. Beyond her work with the City of Roseville, Michelle is an active member for the FoCES (Future of the Coordinated Entry System) board in Placer County, and has