UCLA CHPR names Dr. Mays senior fellow and Dr. Eisenberg director of mental health program
UCLA CHPR names Dr. Mays senior fellow and Dr. Eisenberg director of mental health program
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has announced two new faculty appointments: Vickie M. Mays, PhD, MSPH has been named a senior fellow at UCLA CHPR and Daniel Eisenberg, PhD, has been named director of UCLA CHPR’s fast-growing mental health program
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UCLA CHPR Communications Team
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) has announced two new faculty appointments: Vickie M. Mays, PhD, MSPH has been named a senior fellow at UCLA CHPR and Daniel Eisenberg, PhD, has been named director of UCLA CHPR’s fast-growing mental health program. Mays is a clinical psychologist whose areas of expertise include mental health disorders in racial/ethnic and sexual minorities populations, as well as mental health treatment and care. Eisenberg’s work focuses on childhood and adolescent mental health.
A distinguished professor of psychology at UCLA’s College of Letters and Science and health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health (FSPH), plus special advisor to the Chancellor, Mays leads the UCLA Bridging Research, Innovation, Training and Education (BRITE) Center for Science, Research and Policy, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded center working to eliminate physical and mental health disparities in racial/ethnic minority populations.
Eisenberg, a professor of health policy and management at UCLA FSPH, is the founder and a principal investigator of the Healthy Minds Network for Research on Adolescent and Young Adult Mental Health, dedicated to improving the mental and emotional well-being of young people through innovative, multidisciplinary scholarship.
Vickie Mays offers decades of experience in minority health research, education, and training
Mays’ research expertise centers around mental and physical health disparities affecting racial and ethnic minority groups. She has extensive experience in research and policy development in the area of contextual factors that surround COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS in racial and ethnic minority communities. Additionally, Mays’ work also looks at topics such as the role of discrimination on mental and physical health outcomes, and the availability and access of mental health services for racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities.
Mays directs the NIH-funded UCLA BRITE Center, which was created to support the innovative use of research, science, and policy development to help eliminate disparities in physical and mental health for communities that are traditionally underserved by academic research. The BRITE Center brings academic and community members from many disciplines — psychology, law, public policy, medicine, sociology, and more — to study and address disparities. It supports graduate and undergraduate students and works with faculty from across the entire UCLA campus, and providers and community-based organizations throughout California. The center is currently focused on the intersection of the epidemics of racism, mental health, and COVID-19.
Additionally, she served as the co-principal investigator of the Center’s California Quality of Life Survey, which studies a cohort of UCLA CHPR’s California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to understand the prevalence of mental health issues and the contextual factors related to them. This three-wave study of statewide mental health of over 7,000 Californians over several years of the CHIS assessed mental health disorders, experiences with hate crimes and victimization, everyday experiences with discrimination, and levels of social support and involvement.
Her current National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded research on violent deaths — homicide and suicide — is designed to identify patterns of risk and to characterize proximal factors associated with violent death due to suicide and homicide, making use of novel, supervised machine-learning techniques. Using machine learning, the team has identified ways in which language in the death narratives of Black males shot by the police versus white males paints a picture of bias. Her team is also examining how incarceration in Black males impact their mental health as well as the psychological damage of the policing of Black populations.
“I have had the honor of working alongside Dr. Mays for several years, through my partnership with her at the UCLA BRITE Center, and she has been and will continue to be a formidable force in the health equity research field,” said Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, MPP, UCLA CHPR director and FSPH professor. “Dr. Mays will add invaluable expertise to our work on understanding and addressing health and mental health inequities among marginalized groups and minority populations.”
Mays has provided testimony to a number of congressional committees, the National Academy, and other policy-setting groups on her COVID-19 predictive equity model, HIV, mental health, and health disparities research findings. She currently serves as the Co-Chair of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics work group on SOGI and SDOH which will send reports to the HHS Secretary advising on the format and collection of this data in clinical encounters, administrative data, research, and survey data.
Mays has received a number of awards including one for her lifetime research on women and HIV from amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research), a Women and Leadership Award and Presidential Citation for her lifetime contributions in HIV and COVID from the American Psychological Association, and several Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education awards.
In 2021, Mays received the Carl Taube Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Mental Health from the American Public Health Association’s Mental Health Section. At UCLA she received two of the highest Academic Senate lifetime awards.
One for her lifetime contributions in research, teaching and service in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and another for her lifetime of service to the Academic Senate. Mays has served as the Chair of the Academic Senate — one of its highest accomplishments — as well as chaired Senate committees such as the Undergraduate Council, and the Committee on Committees, the Ad-Hoc group that recommended the creation of the online IRB. She has also served on the responsibility-centered management committees for budget modeling and participated for several terms on the Senate’s Executive Board. Currently she serves on the UC Health Care Task Force.
“I’m thrilled to join the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research to add even more evidence-based power to affect policy change aimed at reducing and eliminating health and mental health disparities among marginalized groups,” said Mays. “I know the Center has been doing excellent work around understanding health status across various racial and ethnic groups, and one of my first projects in this role involves teaming up with Dr. Ponce to conduct a statewide analysis to understand COVID-related risk and vulnerabilities to improve vaccination education for Black Californians. The CHIS data are a unique resource that allows us to make a difference for many different racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities in the state of California.”
Mays teaches courses on mental health services and mental health policies, the health status and health behaviors of racial and ethnic minority groups; research ethics in biomedical and behavioral research in racial/ethnic minority populations; health disparities; research methods in minority research; as well as courses on the social determinants of health and mental health. She holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, an MSPH in Health Services from UCLA FSPH, with postdoctoral training in psychiatric epidemiology and survey research as it applies to ethnic minorities (University of Michigan), and health policy (RAND Corporation). She has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and has spoken on multiple national, state, and local media outlets, including The Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, Forbes, and USA Today. She serves as the health correspondence for the weekly podcast Community Briefings.
Daniel Eisenberg shines a light on child, adolescent, and student mental health
Eisenberg’s research goal is to improve understanding of how to effectively invest in adolescent and young adult mental health. His research focuses on health behaviors, mental health services and policy, economic and policy evaluation, and digital interventions for population mental health. Prior to his role as a professor at UCLA FSPH, Eisenberg served as a faculty member at the University of Michigan from 2004 to 2020.
Eisenberg is a principal investigator for the Healthy Minds Network for Research on Adolescent and Young Adult Mental Health. This research network administers the Healthy Minds Study, a national survey study of student mental health and related factors, and facilitates the development, testing, and dissemination of innovative programs, as well as interventions for student mental health.
Eisenberg is currently writing a book about investments in children’s mental health, in collaboration with NYU Professor Ramesh Raghavan.
“The Center’s mental health research has grown significantly in recent years and we are excited to expand on this work with the development of an official Mental Health Program, led by Dr. Daniel Eisenberg,” said Ponce. “Dr. Eisenberg has contributed extensively to young adult mental health research through his work leading the Healthy Minds Network over the last 15 years. He will work closely with Research Scientist Dr. D. Imelda Padilla-Frausto to build on our ongoing efforts to address mental health disparities across different populations, especially among youth and adolescents.”
Eisenberg’s current research grants include an NIMH study focusing on using mobile technology to reduce mental health disorders in college populations. He is also a co-investigator on another NIMH study on improving student mental health through the implementation of school-based cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as the M-CARES Study focusing on Michigan Contraceptive Access, Research, and Evaluation.
He has served as an NIH Study Section reviewer in Services Research, as well as conducted grant reviews for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and the U.S. Department of Health Resources and Services Administration. Eisenberg earned his bachelor’s degree and PhD in economics from Stanford University and has mental health services research training as a UC Berkeley post-doctoral researcher.
Eisenberg has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has been featured in several media outlets, including The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.
“It is a great honor to be asked to join the Center’s team to expand on the foundation for actionable policy research around mental health, which is greatly needed as it is a vital part of improving the health and well-being of all people,” said Eisenberg. “I am excited at the prospect of the mental health program to elevate crucial mental health data to the public and raise awareness for policymakers, funders, and other stakeholders to invest in improving mental health, especially among disadvantaged communities and our youth and adolescents.”
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About the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. UCLA CHPR improves the public’s health through high quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. UCLA CHPR is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and is part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
