Corina Penaia, MPH, is the community engagement and research director and co-founding member of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Data Policy Lab at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR).
Prior to joining the UCLA CHPR, Penaia served as a program manager for a nonprofit organization where she worked closely with policymakers and community stakeholders to address prevalent health issues that impact Pacific Islander and Asian families. Her experience includes implementing public health programs in underserved communities. Penaia has a passion and extensive expertise in producing culturally relevant and sensitive programming around food insecurity, chronic diseases, and related policy and advocacy, and implementing nutrition education and obesity prevention programs.
Penaia holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Pitzer College and a master’s degree in public health from California State University, Fullerton. She is currently a doctoral student at UCLA.
