ninez ponce, Ph.D., m.p.p.

Pilot Investigator

Pilot Study
"Do language barriers contribute to variations in health services use among Asian and Latino elders?" (2003-2004)

Address
UCLA School of Public Health,
Center for Health Policy Research
31-258 CHS/10911
Weyburn Ave, Ste. 300
Los Angeles, CA  90095-1772

Phone
(310) 794-0992
(310) 206-4021

Fax
(310) 794-2686
(310) 825-2594

Email
nponce@ucla.edu

Biography
Ninez Ponce is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health and Senior Research Scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research. She is also consultant to the Kellogg Foundation's Community-Voices Project-Oakland. Dr. Ponce’s training in health economics and policy is applied to her current research interests: increasing prevention and screening services use among linguistic and ethnic minorities, and developing innovative approaches to expand insurance markets to cover low-income immigrant populations. As Co-Principal Investigator of the California Health Interview Survey 2001 and 2003, she led the efforts in the measurement of race/ethnicity, acculturation, physician-patient communication, and discrimination. In addition, she conceptualized the rationale and implementation of CHIS 2001’s Asian ethnic oversamples and the cultural and linguistic adaptation of the survey. Dr. Ponce received a 5-year career-development award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to explore neighborhood effects and health care market factors that may explain persisting racial and ethnic disparities in cancer screening. Recently, NCI’s Special Populations Health Network recognized Dr. Ponce as a “Rising Star” in cancer disparities research as part of her work with the Asian American Network in Cancer Awareness Research and Training. Dr. Ponce is faculty advisor to UCLA’s student-run Samahang Pilipino Education and Retention (SPEAR) Project and Samahang Pilipino Advancing Community Empowerment (SPACE), and serves on several state and national committees: the Cultural and Linguistics Work Group of California’s Office of the Patient Advocate, the Policy Board of the California Pan Ethnic Health Network and Executive Board of the Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus of the American Public Health Association. She received a BS from UC Berkeley, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, a PhD in Health Services from UCLA, and post-doctoral training in Health Policy from UC Berkeley.