Our Team

     

       

           

Faculty

Jason Nagata, MD, MSc
Principal Investigator

Dr. Nagata is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at the University of California San Francisco and affiliated faculty with the Institute for Global Health Sciences. He researches health consequences of adolescent and young adult behaviors and is an expert in body image and eating disorders in boys and men. He has published over 300 articles in academic journals including The Lancet, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Pediatrics. He is Co-Founder of the International Association for Adolescent Health Young Professionals Network. He serves as Senior Editor of the Journal of Eating Disorders, on the International Advisory Board of The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Adolescent Health. He is the recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics Emerging Leader in Adolescent Health Award, the International Association for Adolescent Health Young Professionals Prize, and the Western Society for Pediatric Research Young Investigator Award. He completed a BA in Health and Societies from the University of Pennsylvania, MSc in Medical Anthropology from the University of Oxford, MD and Adolescent Medicine Fellowship from UCSF, and Pediatrics Residency at Stanford University.  

Kyle Ganson, PhD, MSW
Assistant Professor

Dr. Ganson is an Assistant Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. His research interests include men's health, male eating disorders, and performance-enhancing substances. 

Postdoctoral Fellows

Anita Chaphekar, DO
Fellow Physician 

Dr. Chaphekar is a fellow in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine and a research fellow in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. She earned her medical degree from the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center and completed her pediatric residency at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She is a member of the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM). Her clinical and research interests include the overlap seen with eating disorders and gender diverse youth. 

Julia Raney, MD
Fellow Physician

Dr. Raney is a fellow in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. She earned her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University. Her research interests include health disparities, adverse childhood experiences, resiliency, and adolescent health.

Abubakr Al-shoaibi, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Al-shoaibi is a postdoctoral fellow in the the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He earned his masters and doctoral degrees in public health from the Graduate School of Medicine at Nagoya University, Japan. His research interests include adolescent health, cardiovasuclar disease, and diabetes. 

Kirk Fergus, MD, MAS
Resident Physician

Dr. Fergus is a surgery resident physician at the University of California San Francisco, where he completed medical school and a masters degree in clinical research. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in social studies. He studies young adult risk behaviors in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

Chloe Cattle, MD
Resident Physician

Dr. Cattle is an internal medicine resident physician at the University of California San Francisco, where she completed medical school. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in Psychobiology. Her research examines eating disorders and muscle dysmorphia in sexual and gender minority populations in The PRIDE Study.

Medical Students

Sana Alsamman, BA
Medical Student

Sana is a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. She graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology. Her research examines physical activity, Fitbit steps, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.

Christopher Lee, BA
Medical Student

Chris is a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Biology. His research examines screen time, physical activity, and cardiovascular disease risk factors as well as sexual orientation health disparities in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.

Anthony Nguyen, BS
Medical Student

Anthony is a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. He graduated from the University of California, Davis with a degree in Biological Sciences and additionally dived deep into the joys of research through the American Chemical Society and biochemistry laboratories at the University of the Pacific. Today, he holds paramount interest in utilizing the skills he's learned in pursuit of clinical research that can improve human health. His research examines gender differences in medical complications of eating disorders among adolescents and young adults.

Omar Sajjad, MS
Medical Student

Omar is a medical student at Dartmouth College. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a double major in Biology and Global Health. He later received his M.S. in Global Health from the University of California, San Francisco. His research focuses on screen time and alcohol use in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.

Gurbinder Singh, BS
Medical Student

Gary is a medical student at the University of California San Francisco. He graduated from University of California, Merced with a degree in Microbiology and Immunology. His research examines screen-associated behaviors and various outcomes in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.

Gabriel Zamora, BA
Medical Student

Gabriel is a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. He graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a degree in psychology. His overarching goal is to carry out research to improve the mental health of children, adolescents, and their families. His research examines adolescent screen time and mental health in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.

Graduate Students

Priya Balasubramanian, BA
MPH Student

Priya is a current MPH student at UC Berkeley specializing in Infectious Disease and Vaccinology with a focus on Biostatistics. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. Her research interests include developing mathematical models and predictive analytics to study socio-behavioral trends and disease surveillance.

Ammal Bashir, BS
Dual MPH/DO Student

Ammal is a dual MPH/DO student concurrently pursuing her DO at the University of New England and her MPH in Epidemiology at the Icahn School of Mount Sinai Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Her research interests include nutritional disparities in adolescents, chronic disease implications of epidemiological studies, and sociobehavioral health in minority youth.

Shayna Weinstein, BA
MPH Practicum Student

Shayna is a 4+1 Master of Public Health student at the University of California, Berkeley. She graduated from her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Public Health and a minor in Nutritional Sciences. She plans to attend medical school. Her research examines ACE’s, nutrition, cardiovascular risk, and mental health among adolescents for the advancement of clinical guidelines. 

Christiane Helmer, BA
MPH Student

Christiane Helmer is a 4+1 MPH student at UC Berkeley, concentrating in Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health. She earned her bachelor's degrees in Public Health and Molecular and Cell Biology. Her research interests include youth mental health, eating disorders, and reproductive health, and she aspires to become a physician.

Karen Li, BA
MPH Student

Karen is a 4+1 MPH student at Berkeley with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics. She graduated with her BA in Public Health from UC Berkeley and plans to attend medical school in the future. Her research interests include clinical epidemiology, nutrition, and cardiovascular disease.

 

Jennifer Wong, BS
MPH Student

Jennifer is a current MPH student at UC Berkeley specializing in epidemiology and biostatistics. She earned her B.S. in Public Health from the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests include ACEs, cardiovascular outcomes, and reproductive health.

Undergraduate Students

Ashley Saldana
Undergraduate Student

Ashley is an undergraduate premedical student studying Chemistry and Music at the University of San Francisco with a background in mental health and disability rights advocacy. Her research interests include eating disorders and mental health, specifically in child and adolescent populations.

Jonanne Talebloo
Undergraduate Student

Jonanne is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley studying Molecular and Cell Biology. Her interests include health education outreach as well as research in cardiovascular disease risk, mental health, and screen use.

Lab Alumni

Deepika Parmar, MD, MPH

Dr. Parmar is a physician at Kaiser Permanente and was a fellow in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Parmar earned her medical degree from the University of Missouri and completed her pediatric residency training at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center. She completed her Masters at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP) and a member of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM). She has a passion for serving sexual and gender minority youth and this has become her area of focus for research.

Jonathan Chu, MD
Medical Student

Jonathan is a medical student at the University of California San Francisco. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology. His research examines weight control behaviors and body mass index trajectories in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

Lynhea Anicete, MS
Graduate Student

Lynhea is a recent graduate of the masters in global health sciences program at the University of California, San Francisco. She studies household composition and mental health among HIV-affected households in the Shamba Maisha study.

Paola Bojorquez-Ramirez, MPH
Graduate Student Epidemiology Program

Paola is a Master of Public Health graduate at the Yale School of Public Health in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health. Her overarching goal is to carry out epidemiological research to improve the health of women, infants, children, and adolescents. Her research examines gender differences in medical complications of eating disorders among adolescents and young adults.

Catherine Cortez, MPH
Graduate Student Epidemiology Program

Catherine is a Master of Public Health graduate at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Epidemiology. She graduated from University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health. Her research examines adolescent screen time, physical activity, and mental health in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.

Natalia Smith, MPH

Natalia is a second-year Master of Public Health student at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a clinical dietitian, who graduated from the Universidad Ibero, Mexico City. Her interests lie in data driven solutions to improve maternal, child, and adolescent health. Her research examines longitudinal data on adolescent mental health, physical activity, nutrition, and screen time use. 

Samuel Benabou
Undergraduate Student

Sam is an undergraduate student at Stanford University studying Human Biology. His research examines concussions in adolescents and young adults and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young adults.