Dr. Denise Diaz Payán, Ph.D., M.P.P., is an Assistant Professor of Public Health in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts at the University of California, Merced. She is the principal investigator of the Community Health & Innovative Policy (CHIP) Lab and is currently Deputy Director of the state-wide research translation center known as the California Initiative for Health Equity & Action. She serves on the editorial board for Health Education & Behavior, an official publication of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE).

Dr. Payán is a health policy researcher whose interests include examining the health policymaking process; evaluating interventions to address obesity and nutrition-related health disparities; and understanding how policy impacts health behavior. She also conducts state and local policy surveillance research. Dr. Payán has collaborated on process and impact evaluations and contributed to community-engaged research studies implemented in a variety of settings, including schools, faith-based organizations, safety net clinics, and academic medical centers.

She is affiliated with the Health Sciences Research Institute and the Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center at UC Merced, and the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute. 

Research interests: health policy; obesity; nutrition; food security; state policymaking; advocacy coalitions; evaluation; global health

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