Faculty and Affiliates Clare Viglione, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, PhD, MPH, RDDr. Clare Viglione is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UC San Diego’s Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and Director of the GROW.V.BABY Practice-Based Research Network at Boston Medical Center. She is a health services researcher and clinical dietitian whose work applies implementation science and practice-based research to strengthen maternal, child, and family health systems. Her research focuses on child resilience and family-centered primary care interventions, generating real-world evidence from safety-net settings to advance relational health and health equity.Areas of expertise include: Implementation Science, Health Services Research, Maternal, Child, and Family Health, Early Childhood & Relational Health Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs), Primary Care Transformation Family-Centered Care Interventions, Pragmatic & Hybrid Effectiveness–Implementation Trial Design, Community-Engaged Research, Safety-Net Health Systems, Health Equity, Child Resilience Pediatric & Family Health Systems, Nutrition & Clinical Dietetics Richard Garfein, Professor, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, PhD, MPHDr. Richard Garfein is an infectious disease epidemiologist, educator, and healthcare innovator who seeks to understand the causes of disease and translate that understanding into impactful solutions. For over 30 years, his research has focused primarily on airborne and bloodborne infections often associated with health disparities and substance use, including tuberculosis, HIV, and viral hepatitis in the U.S. and abroad. His research on digital adherence technology has informed CDC and WHO guidelines on the use of telehealth for remotely monitoring patients with tuberculosis. Dr. Garfein collaborated on research that combined COVID-19 diagnostic testing with wastewater and surface sampling to minimize transmission risks in elementary schools and childcare centers and served on the UC San Diego Return-to-Learn COVID-19 Public Health Team. He currently works on studies evaluating digital technologies to reduce the risk of fatal crashes involving commercial motor vehicles and evaluating novel diagnostic assays for tuberculosis. Areas of expertise include: Infectious disease epidemiology; digital health; diagnostic test development; substance use; behavioral interventions; quantitative and qualitative research methodsKristin Brownell, Core Faculty and Community Medicine Director, MD, MPHDr. Kristin Brownell is a social justice family physician who teaches medical students and family medicine residents in the City heights community since 2007. She values collaborating with community groups, and other organizations to promote healthy lifestyles and advocate for health equity and fight structural racism. She is excited to work more recently with youth in the Faces for the Future program and Food as Medicine programs through Food Farmacy Pilots. She is passionate about newcomer, women and pediatric health. She has served over 10 years on the San Diego Academy of Family Physicians and advocates at the state level for health policy change.Areas of expertise include: Family Medicine- newborn- adult+ OB, Newcomer Health, Female Genital Cutting, Group Health Visits, Food As Medicine, Advocacy, community work.Eric Hekler, Professor, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science (PhD, MS)Dr. Eric Hekler is a transdisciplinary researcher, educator, and practitioner who works at the intersection of public health, health psychology, design, and control systems engineering. His mission is to advance methods and processes that equitably serve people and practice towards a more vital, just, and resonantly diverse society and planet. He works towards this via advancing research methods and processes in the areas of 1.) optimizing adaptive behavioral interventions; 2.) helping people help themselves; and 3.) facilitating compassionate, anti-oppressive, systems-oriented collective action. He has numerous publications that span the many disciplines he contributes, has active federal and foundation funding – including as an NIH R01-funded PI, has played an integral role in creating new transdisciplinary educational opportunities and programs at UCSD, and is an active public health practitioner in the San Diego region.Areas of expertise include: precision health, human-centered design, community-powered design, digital health, systems change, and behavior change.
