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 at UC Merced and is currently Deputy Director of the state-wide research translation center known as the California Initiative for Health Equity & Action.
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-based participatory research projects 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.
Dr. Payán obtained a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.P.P. from Harvard Kennedy School. She received a B.A. in History and Science, a Certificate in Health Policy, and a Citation in Spanish from Harvard College. Prior to coming to UC Merced, she was a Health Services Research post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Health Policy and Management at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the RAND Corporation.
Research Interests: health policy; obesity; nutrition; food security; HIV/AIDS; state policymaking; advocacy coalitions; evaluation; global health
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