Grace Taylor is a Research Analyst at BHHI. Grace uses their qualitative expertise to conduct interviews in the field as part of the California State Survey. While focused on medical anthropology during their undergraduate studies, Grace worked with BHHI faculty member, Dr. Colette Auerswald to conduct public health research on youth homelessness and permanent supportive housing in the Bay Area. Grace has long been involved in activism related to homelessness and housing, inspired by their own experiences with housing instability. They have worked with various grassroots organizations in the East Bay and beyond since 2016. Grace holds a Bachelor of

Graham J. Pruss, PhD, is an ethno-archaeologist who studies vehicle residency in North America. His research focuses on the intersection of lived experiences, social services, legal systems, and public policy development. He mixes participatory, qualitative, and quantitative methods to better inform policymakers and convey complex research to non-academic audiences. He joined the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative as a Postdoctoral Scholar in 2020. Extensive travel with his family in vehicles during his childhood and relationships with long-term vehicle residents inspired Graham to focus on vehicle habitation in public space. At Seattle University, Graham directed the Vehicular Residency Research Program whose

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 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

Margo graduated from UC Berkeley in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Mathematics and Economics and completed an honors thesis analyzing the effects of bail reform in reducing mass incarceration and racial disparities within the criminal justice system. Prior to joining BHHI, Margo worked as a research assistant on housing insecurity related projects at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and as a research program manager on USAID-ASEAN projects regarding conflict prevention and gender equality within Southeast Asia. Margo is passionate about utilizing research to address poverty and inequality and to tackle the deeply rooted issue

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