Full Time Faculty
Full Time Faculty
Alina Engelman, DrPH, MPH
Associate Professor
Dr. Engelman received her Doctor of Public Health degree (DrPH) at UC Berkeley, her MPH in Global Health at Yale University and her BA at Brown University. Dr. Engelman is a Research Affiliate at Health Research for Action at U.C. Berkeley, with a focus on health initiatives for underserved populations, including the deaf and hard of hearing. In addition, she is a member of the Community Health Commission for the City of Berkeley. Her areas of interest include global health, disability studies, and emergency preparedness communication.
Ryan Gamba, PhD.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Gamba received a Master’s of Public Health degree in Maternal and Child Health from the University of California Berkeley (UCB) and his PhD from UCB in Epidemiology. Before pursuing graduate school, he worked at the Food Bank of Yolo County and the San Diego State University Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) Program as a nutrition educator. His research focuses on food insecurity and hunger in America.
Chandrakala Ganesh, PhD.
Department Chair & Professor
Dr. Ganesh has a doctorate in Health Policy and Administration from the Pennsylvania State University in and a post-doctoral fellowship in mental health economics from UC Berkeley, School of Public Health. Prior to her doctorate she has worked for multiple pharmaceutical companies and has obtained degrees in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Management from Universities in India. Her areas of interest include aging, mental health, public health impacts of climate change and prescription drug policy.
Andrew Kelly, PhD.
Associate Professor
Dr. Kelly received his PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University in 2012. Prior to joining the Health Sciences Program at CSUEB, he held post-doctoral fellowships at Johns Hopkins University; the University of California, San Francisco; and a two-year position as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
His research investigates the politics of public policy and institutional change, with a particular focus on three critical areas of American public policy: health care, public health, and scientific research. The ultimate goal of Dr. Kelly’s research agenda is to understand how institutional structures and existing policy systems affect the state’s ability to design, enact, and secure public policies that serve the general interest and improve governance. Dr. Kelly’s primary policy focus is on Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Kelly’s articles have been published in The Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Studies in American Political Development, and Forum.
Nidhi Khosla, PhD.
Associate Professor
Nidhi Khosla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at California State University, East Bay (CSUEB). She has a unique training in behavioral, organizational and epidemiological research methods and field experience in management of health programs and working with communities using participatory, rights-based empowerment approaches. Her multidisciplinary graduate training includes a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Master in Public Health degree and a Certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Certificate in International Development from Duke University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management (PGDRM) from the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), India equivalent to a Masters Degree in Management. Before pursuing graduate study in the US, she managed grassroots programs on social marketing, reproductive health, HIV prevention and care and poverty alleviation in India. She has also briefly worked in Bangladesh.
Khosla’s research concerns access to care among vulnerable populations and reducing health disparities. Her current research focuses on increasing access to and satisfaction with palliative and end-of-life care among minorities, especially persons of South Asian origin. She has also researched organizational behavior such as collaboration among HIV agencies. Prior to joining CSUEB in Fall 2015, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia from Fall 2012-2016. She is an aspiring writer, having published one short story and some flash fiction pieces.
Juleen Lam, MS, MHS, PhD.
Associate Professor
Dr. Lam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at California State University, East Bay. Dr. Lam’s research interests include environmental epidemiology, evaluation of population exposures to environmental contaminants, assessment and communication of environmental risks, and reproductive/developmental health. She specializes in analysis of environmental health data, development and application of risk assessment methods, and the translation of scientific findings into making timely and informed decisions and policies. In particular, she has been involved in developing systematic review methods for environmental health data for several years and has been a pivotal part in implementing, publishing, and disseminating these approaches in both academic and government settings. She currently serves as a member of the US EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) Chemical Safety for Sustainability Subcommittee.
Dr. Lam received her Ph.D. in Environmental Health Policy and M.H.S. in Biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, M.S. in Environmental Engineering Management from George Washington University, and B.S. in Mathematics and Environmental Toxicology from UC Davis. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the Johns Hopkins University and at the US Environmental Protection Agency and has over 15 years of experience in environmental health research and policy, holding positions at state and federal government agencies, academic institutions, and in consulting and nonprofit sectors.
Nicholas Lam, PhD.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Nicholas Lam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at California State University, East Bay. His research interests lie at the boundaries of health, climate, and energy with a particular focus on resource-limited settings. His research examines the health and welfare impacts of current and future energy practices within homes and businesses, and strategies for developing energy infrastructure to improve access to resilient health services. Through this work, he seeks to understand how energy-related burdens, benefits, and needs are distributed across people and places to inform more equitable health and climate policies. Dr. Lam employs mixed methods study designs within desk and field research, to work towards developing a mechanistic representation of the relationships between human health, climate, and energy. This has included field studies in over a dozen countries and research on the energy requirements of homes and businesses, air quality and exposure assessment, emissions testing, technology adoption, and the economic and climate benefits of renewable energy transitions. Dr. Lam often works in collaboration with health and renewable energy practitioners, often through the development of analytical tools aimed at promoting cross-sectoral dialogue and informed decision-making. He holds an affiliate Research Scientist position at the Schatz Energy Research Center at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.
Maria Livaudais, PhD.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Livaudais attained her PhD in Political Science from the University of New Mexico.Her research interests include health policy and politics, racial/ethnic health inequities, and scientific research. Dr. Livaudais specializes in the analysis of the Affordable Care Act and the ways race and racism impact attitudes and engagement with healthcare reform. (she, her and hers/ella, ella y suya)
Arnab Mukherjea, DrPH, MPH.
Associate Professor
Dr. Arnab Mukherjea is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health at California State University (CSU), East Bay. He is also the Faculty Director for the Health Professions in the Office of the Chancellor for the CSU, and is the Inaugural Director of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA & NH/PI) Middle Leadership Academy, which is a joint venture of the CSU Student Success Network and CSU AA & NH/PI Student Achievement Program (CSU ASAP). His research interests broadly revolve around using community-engaged methods to understand and address health disparities among understudied AA & NH/PI subgroups, with a particular focus on contextual and culturally-framed risk factors. He investigates social and cultural determinants of disparities among South Asians in the United States, with an emphasis on qualitative inquiry and validity of quantitative measures of risk. Arnab's research has been funded by the National Institutes for Health, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Office of Minority Health, and the state of California's Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program. Arnab completed his undergraduate (Bachelor of Arts in Molecular & Cell Biology with a minor in Education) and graduate (Master of Public Health in Health & Social Behavior with specialization in Multicultural Health; Doctor of Public Health in Applied Health Disparities Research) degrees at the University of California, Berkeley and postdoctoral training (Tobacco Control and Chronic Disease Prevention) at the San Francisco and Davis campuses of the University of California; he maintains formal research affiliations with all three institutions. Arnab firmly believes that community participation is essential for affected groups to understand, address, and ultimately take ownership of their own individual and collective health prospects.
Kelsi Perttula, PhD
Assistant Professor
Professor Perttula began as a lecturer at CSUEB and has been with the CSUEB Health Sciences/Public Health Department since Spring 2020. She has also lectured chemistry in CSUEB's Chemistry Department. She thoroughly enjoys teaching the diverse and vibrant student community at CSUEB. She has lived in the Bay Area all of her adult life. After college, she worked 10 years as a forensic scientist, mostly for San Mateo County, but pivoted to a career in academia and public health after starting a family. In her spare time, she plots ways to make her kids eat more vegetables.
Michael Schmeltz, MS, DrPH.
Associate Professor
Dr. Schmeltz received his doctorate in Public Health from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center and School of Public Health where he focused his research on examining health and economic impacts associated with climate change. Afterwards, he was a postdoc at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development, continuing his work on climate change impacts to human health. Dr. Schmeltz also obtained a Master of Science in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, with a focus in Industrial Hygiene, from Hunter College. Dr. Schmeltz has held positions at state and local public health agencies as well as working internationally in Australia and Asia studying methods of adaptation, mitigation, and assessment of vulnerable populations to extreme events and disasters. His research interests include public health impacts to climate change, environmental justice, risk communication; and environmental policies and regulations.
Michael Stanton, PhD.
Associate Professor
Dr. Stanton is a Licensed Clinical Health Psychologist and Assistant Professor at California State University, East Bay. He holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a focus in Behavioral Medicine from Duke University. He completed his internship and postdoctoral training at Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Hospital. He received his B.A. from Brown University.
Dr. Stanton's research focuses on psychosocial determinants of obesity. His clinical work in health psychology integrates mind-body skills such as mindfulness with cognitive behavioral therapy to treat health problems including obesity, hypertension, chronic pain, insomnia and depression. His work has been recognized at national and international scientific conferences. His articles have been published in such journals as Molecular Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, PLOS ONE, and Harvard Review of Psychiatry.
Oscar Wambuguh, PhD.
Professor
My name is Oscar Wambuguh (wah-bow-gho). I have been teaching at California State University, East Bay since 2000 in Biology and Health Sciences. I primarily teach BIOL 4820, BIOL 3999, HSC 2001, HSC 3200, HSC 4500 and HSC 4700. I am also active in research in environmental health management. It is now beyond doubt that our own human activities have greatly contributed to accelerated global warming and subsequent climate change over the last three decades. With these rapid changes in the world we live in, finding ways in which we can live more sustainability on this planet is of great interest to us, non-scientists and scientists alike. My research focuses on the conservation of biological diversity, solid waste disposal and recycling efforts in communities, renewable energy technologies (RETs) development, and health effects of pesticides particularly in the world’s developing nations. In the last few years, I have also become more engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning. I have written two books and published several articles on these topics.
Kristina Wharton, PhD.
Assistant Professor
Kristina Wharton joined the Department of Public Health at CSU East Bay as an assistant professor in 2023. Her teaching and research interests focus on how local, state, and federal policies influence health and well-being. She is particularly focused on promoting equity in access to primary healthcare, mental health care, and substance use prevention and treatment in underserved communities. Specifically, she has investigated the impact of legislation including the ACA and, more recently, the CARES Act and ARPA. Kristina is thrilled to be teaching Health Law (PH360), Health Disparities and Health Equity (PH250), Health Economics (PH360), Health Policy Research and Analysis (PH400), the First Year Seminar (PH100), the Capstone in Health Sciences (PH499). Currently, Kristina is leading an NIAAA-funded R21 titled, “COVID-19 Telehealth Policies’ Impact on Provision of Alcohol and Substance Use Disorder Services at Federally Qualified Health Centers.” The objectives are this study are to identify telehealth polices that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic that facilitate access to alcohol and substance use treatment in safety net primary care settings. Her other research examines how policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic influenced environmental conditions and contexts in which early drinking and continued alcohol use occurs among adolescents as well as how COVID-19 alcohol policies influenced adult use, particularly LGBTQ-identified adults. Kristina is also currently working on how state-level anti-transgender bills and laws are affecting trans and gender diverse adults in the US.
Prior to joining CSU East Bay, Kristina was a lecturer at San Francisco State University and a postdoctoral fellow in the Prevention Science Research Training Program at UC Berkeley and the Prevention Research Center. Prior to academic service, she worked in and with Federally Qualified Health Centers in multiple states on post-ACA patient-centered care transformation and EHR adoption. She uses qualitative, mixed-methods, multi-level modeling, and policy evaluation methods including difference-in-differences models to investigate these issues of access to care inspired by her career and lived experiences. Kristina received her PhD in Health Policy and Management from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, MPH in Maternal and Child Health from UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Public Health, MPA from North Carolina State University, and BA in Economics from Smith College.