Our Team

The Health Equity Institute is led by a faculty Director in collaboration with a dedicated group of Health Equity Faculty who share their time with home departments across our campus - in sociology, public health, economics, and kinesiology.

We are joined each year by HEI Faculty Scholars supported with research-time, dedicated space, and a home-base for their health equity scholarship. HEI welcomes affiliate faculty, a volunteer base of faculty across campus, who are instrumental to the running of our programs and activities. Student scholars are selected each year for hands-on research training on affiliate faculty projects and join a professional development seminar. 

HEI is also joined by Faculty Scholarship hub fellows in the Science, Technology, and Society program. The STS Hub is an interdisciplinary effort to build research at the intersection of science studies and social justice.  

An advisory board comprising SF State faculty from across campus guides our work.

HEI Faculty

allen leblanc phd hi res

Allen LeBlanc, Professor of Sociology

Mamo

Laura Mamo, Professor of Public Health, Director HEI

Sepideh Modrek, Ph.D.

Sepideh Modrek, Associate Professor of Economics

HEI Faculty Scholars

A woman wearing wire frame glasses and long, dark blonde hair from the shoulders up. Her shirt is dark green.

Martha Kenney, Ph.D.

An Asian woman with long dark hair and wire framed glasses. She wears a navy blue blazer and a striped boatneck underneath. She stand in front of dappled sunlight and leaves of a tree.

Xiaorong Zhang, Ph.D.

HEI Affiliate Faculty

Emma Sanchez-Vaznaugh

Emma Sanchez-Vaznaugh, Ph.D.

David Rebanal

David Rebanal, Sc.D.

Supriya Misra

Supriya Misra, Sc.D.

A brown-skinned woman with long, black hair from the shoulders up. She smiles at the camera.

Zubaida Qamar, Ph.D., R.D.

A light-skinned woman from the shoulders up. She has long, dark, curly hair tied back. She wears gold hoop earrings and a black blazer. She is smiling at the camera.

Teresa Gray, Ph. D.

A light-skinned woman with a red shirt and long, dark hair smiles at the camera.

Zena R. Mello, Ph.D.

HEI Advisory Board

David I. Anderson, Health and Social Sciences 

Carmen R. Domingo, Sciences and Engineering 

Anoshua Chaudhuri, Business  

Nhung M. Le, Ethnic Studies 

Leticia Marquez-Magana, Sciences and Engineering   

Johnny Symons, Liberal and Creative Arts