Research Team

Jarmin Yeh, PhD, MPH, MSSW

Associate Adjunct Professor
Institute for Health & Aging

Jarmin Yeh, PhD, MPH, MSSW, is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Health & Aging, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, in the School of Nursing at UCSF. Their research broadly investigates social justice issues that impact the quality of life of community-dwelling older adults, people living with dementia, and caregivers. They serve as a Co-Director of the UCSF Emancipatory Sciences Lab, founded by Dr. Carroll Estes, and teach in the UCSF Master of Science in Healthcare Administration and Interprofessional Leadership (MS-HAIL) Program. They received a BA from UC Berkeley, MPH and MSSW from Columbia University, and PhD from UCSF. Jarmin is the principal investigator of the IHSS+ ADRD Training Project.

Matthew Beld

Project Manager
Institute for Health & Aging

Matthew is an epidemiologist in the UCSF School of Nursing and program manager for the UCSF Center for Sexual & Gender Minority Health. They have collaborated on several studies including work with dementia, inclusive care, and housing for LGBTQ older adults. Matthew co-authored the 2021 updated report for the California Department of Public Health, titled "Alzheimer's disease and related dementias facts and figures in California: Current status and future projections." They received an MPH from the UC Berkeley. 

Brittney Pond, PhD(c)

Graduate Student Researcher
Institute for Health & Aging
Brittney Pond is a doctoral student in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at UCSF. Her main research interests focus on perceptions of aging, dying well, and elder agency, especially for those with Alzheimer's disease. She is engaged in conversations regarding emotion work, caregiver burnout, and qualitative methodologies. She is a Co-Assistant Director of the UCSF Emancipatory Science Lab, founded by Dr. Carroll Estes. She received a BA from the College of Holy Cross, where she completed a thesis using ethnographic methods to study caregivers working with people who have Alzheimer's disease. Brittney is a graduate student researcher of the IHSS+ ADRD Training Project.

Mel Neri

Project Analyst
N_Social Behavioral Sciences

Mel Neri is a Research Associate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the Director of Curriculum Development, managing and co-authoring courses for College of Personal Assistance and Caregiving (CPAC) online training curriculum. She has been working in the disability and health services research field for over two decades. Before coming to UCSF in 2007, she worked at the Oregon Office on Disability & Health at the Oregon Health & Science University, the Center for Health and Disability Research at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, and the Center for Disability Policy and Research at the University of Washington.  

Suzanna Martinez

Associate Adjunct Professor
Epidemiology & Biostatistics

Dr. Suzanna Martinez' research centers on identifying determinants of health among ethnically underserved populations to help inform and contribute to intervention practices. As a Latina investigator, her long-term professional goal is to conduct research that makes an impact on reducing health disparities among vulnerable groups. She has expertise in the area of energy balance, specifically nutrition, physical activity and sleep, with a particular focus of the impact of food insecurity in college students and throughout the life course. Her research is informed by health behavior theory and the social ecological framework, and she has extensive experience in multivariate statistics and qualitative research methods. 

Brooke Hollister, PhD

ASSOC ADJ PROF-HCOMP
Institute for Health & Aging

Dr. Brooke Hollister is a Research Leader of the Center for Care Research, South, at University of Agder, in Norway. Her teaching and research focus on aging, health, and social policy issues including: mental health, health services research, caregiving and caregivers, long-term care, Social Security, Medicare, and Alzheimer’s disease supports and services. She was a 2012–13 Atlantic Philanthropies Health and Aging Policy Fellow and an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow with a placement in Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office in Washington, DC. She received a BA from UC Santa Cruz and PhD from UCSF. 

Leslie Ross, PhD

SPECIALIST
Institute for Health & Aging

Dr. Leslie Ross is a Specialist in the Institute for Health & Aging at UCSF. Her research has examined the relationship between cognitive impairment and emotional functioning, the effectiveness of fall interventions for older adults, issues of long-term care, and mental health issues among lesbian and bisexual women. Most recently, she evaluated the quality of long-term services and supports and managed care health plans among California’s dual-eligible population (i.e., individuals covered by Medicare and Medi-Cal). Leslie has been a project director on federal and state grants pertaining to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia-related disorders, long-term care, and healthy aging. She co-authored the 2021 updated report for the California Department of Public Health, titled "Alzheimer's disease and related dementias facts and figures in California: Current status and future projections." She received a BA from Rutgers University, and MS and PhD from Memphis State University.