Dr. Van Ta is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Health Science at San José State University. She teaches HS 135 Health Issues in a Multicultural Society, HS 162 Health Care Organization, and HS 295D Research Design and Methodology. Her primary research interest are to address issues related to racial and ethnic minority health and healthcare disparities, especially among at-risk Asian American women including those who suffer from mental/substance use disorders and/or are victims of intimate partner violence. Specifically, she is interested in examining the barriers and facilitators to accessing mental health/substance abuse treatment, and the effectiveness of innovative and culturally appropriate treatment approaches in health care settings. Her current studies include a mixed-methods study on the barriers and facilitators to use of mental health services among Native Hawaiian women, and investigations of the roles of race/ethnicity, generational status and family cohesion on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders’ health care experiences. She is a recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Loan Repayment Program, Health Disparities award. Dr. Ta was a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) postdoctoral fellow in Substance Abuse Treatment and Services Research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Psychiatry. At UCSF, she worked on various projects such as an intervention study on HIV prevention for mentally ill substance users. She has an on-going research study at UCSF that examines racial and gender differences in health services use among methamphetamine users. She completed her doctoral studies in Health Policy and Management with a concentration in social and behavioral sciences at The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, where she was a recipient of the Sir Arthur Newsholme Scholarship. Her dissertation research focused on the prevalence of and factors related to depression and the utilization of mental health/substance use services among Asian and Pacific Islander mothers in Hawai’i. She also has a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Health Promotion, a B.S. in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Southern California (USC). Prior to pursuing her doctoral degree, she worked for three different non-profit organizations in Los Angeles County primarily addressing health care access and health equity issues affecting Asian and Latino Americans as well as the uninsured and underinsured. Dr. Ta is a refugee from Vietnam, a 1.5 generation Chinese American, and is the oldest of four. She was raised in Santa Ana, California. She enjoys cooking and attending cultural events.
Education: Dr. Kathleen Roe received a B.S. in Sociology, an M.P.H. in Health Education, and a Dr.P.H., all from the University of California, Berkeley.
Courses: HS 104 Community Health Promotion, HPROF 10W Writing Workshop, HS 276 Community Organization, HS 277 Multicultural Communication for Health Professionals, HS 293 Leadership
Scholarship, Service, Awards : Dr. Roe’s research interests are in the areas of community-based programs, health disparities, and participatory process evaluation. She is Director of the Community Health Studies Group, which provides technical assistance and participatory evaluation services to community programs throughout Northern California. Dr. Roe was elected SOPHE President 1999-2000 and has held leadership positions in the American Public Health Association and NC-SOPHE. She is on the Editorial Board of Health Promotion Practice and the California Journal of Health Promotion. She was Guest Co-Editor for the HPP April 2002 theme issue on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, and co-Editor of the disparities theme issue to be published in December 2006 by the American Journal of Public Health. She is Co-Chair of the National Task Force for Quality Assurance in Health Education Professional Preparation. She was named the SJSU 2002 Outstanding Professor and received the 2001 Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) Mentor of the Year Award and Northern California SOPHE’s highest honor, the Dorothy Nyswander Award for Leadership in Health Education. Under her leadership as Chair (2001 – present), the Health Science Department has been honored with the SJSU Provost’s 2002 Department Award for Excellence in Service Learning and the Society for Public Health Education’s first Open Society Award, presented in 2005.
Interests: Her family and friends, traveling (Tempe, Paris, Oaxaca, Reykjavik are favorites!), running, reading, cooking, Pilates, her yard, and Irish fiddle music.
Education: Dr. Gerstman received a B.S. in Biology and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University, an M.P.H in Epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Comparative Pathology from the University of California, Davis. He teaches Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Computational Public Health Statistics.
Courses: Dr. Gerstman teaches a MUSE course on Medical Effectiveness, HS 161 Epidemiology, HS 167 Biostatistics, and HS 267 Computational Public Health Statistics.
Scholarship, Service, Awards: Dr. Gerstman's research interests are in the areas of epidemiologic research methods, pharmacoepidemiology, drug safety, and medical and public health record linkage. His research interests focus primarily on the history of epidemiology and public health in post-revolutionary France and Victorian England. Before coming to SJSU in 1990, he was a Fellow of the National Institutes of Health - U.S. Public Health Service Epidemiology Training Program and faculty at the Graduate School at National Institutes of Health. He is author of the best selling text Epidemiology Kept Simple, a widely used epidemiology text currently in its second edition. Dr. Gerstman’s most recent text, Basic Biostatistics: Statistics for Public Health Practice (2008), was published by Jones & Bartlett of Boston, MA . Both of Dr Gerstman’s publications are used as textbooks in the MPH Program. The URL for Dr. Gerstman’s web site is www.sjsu.edu/faculty/gerstman.
Education: Dr. Edward Mamary Dr. Mamary received a B.S. in Community Health and Biology from Montclair State College, an M.S. in Community Health Education from Hunter College, CUNY, and a DrPH from the University of California, Berkeley.
Courses: HS 1 Understanding Your Health, HS 265 Environmental Health, HS 201 Groups and Training, HS 295 Research Design and Methodology, and HS 293 Leadership.
Scholarship, Service, Awards: Dr. Mamary’s research interests are in the areas of community-based evaluation, HIV prevention and care services, focus group methodology, and participatory research methods. He, along with alum Jacqueline McCright Siller, is co-principal investigator on a research project funded by the Universitywide AIDS Research Program, University of California. The main goal of the research is to examine HIV risk among African American men who have sex with men and who do not identify as being gay – using in-depth interviews and Photovoice. Dr. Mamary has consulted on a number of projects, including – a local evaluation for The Partnership for Public Health (PPH) - a five-year initiative funded by the California Endowment to foster ties between California communities and public health departments; HIV needs assessments for the Mountain Counties AIDS Consortium, Contra Costa County, and Kern County; an assessment of smoking among people living with HIV for San Francisco General Hospital; building evaluation capacity for community-based HIV prevention programs in the City and County of San Francisco; and an impact evaluation for the California State Occupational Lead Safety Program. Dr. Mamary also conducts primary care effectiveness reviews for the Ryan White CARE Act Title III Grant Program. He was past co-vice president of national SOPHE and is currently co-chair of SOPHE’s faculty caucus and the treasurer for the Council of Accredited MPH Programs in Community Health Education (CAMP). Dr. Mamary was also a past Co-president of NC-SOPHE. He was recently elected to the National Board of Public Health Examiners.
Interests: He enjoys running, hiking, travel, and classical music.
Dr. Daniel Perales
Professor and Director of the MPH Distance Education Program
Education: Dr. Perales received his BA degree in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and his MPH and DrPH degrees from the University of Texas School of Public Health. He was born in Brownsville, Texas.
Courses: Dr. Perales teaches HS 159 Health Program Planning, HS 161 Epidemiology, HS 164 Health and Social Marketing, and HS 272 Health Promotion Planning and Evaluation.
Scholarship, Service, Awards:Over the last 20 years, he has conducted research that includes observational studies of bicycle safety helmet use in two California counties and needle exchange HIV/AIDS harm reduction programs. He has also conducted evaluation of programs related to tobacco control, prenatal care outreach, nutrition education and food security, child immunization, and coalition development and maintenance. He has provided strategic planning consultations to the Santa Clara County Senior Care Commission, the Gold Country Tobacco Control Coalition, and the California Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. He also served on the American Public Health Association's Strategic Planning Committee. Dr. Perales is currently treasurer and former Co-Vice President of the Society for Public Health Education and is a past member of the Editorial Board of Health Education and Behavior. He presently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Health Promotion Practice, the Californian Journal of Health Promotion, and on the Prevention Institute’s Board of Directors. In 2007, Dr. Perales authored a chapter titled “Primary prevention and program evaluation”, in the highly successful book, Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well-Being, edited byLarry Cohen, Vivian Chavez, and Sana Chehimi and published by Jossey-Bass. The Prevention is Primary publication is used as a textbook in the MPH Program.
Other Interests: Dr. Perales enjoys cooking, birdwatching, and enology.
Education: Dr. Anne Demers received a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz;, an M.P.H. in Community Health Education from San José State University; and an Ed.D in Organization and Leadership from the University of San Francisco. Courses: She currently teaches HS 145 Community Mental Health, HS 165 The Health Professional, HS 271 Theoretical Bases of Health Behavior, and HS 291A, B, & C MPH Fieldwork Seminar, Practicum, and Synthesis.
Scholarship, Service, Awards: Dr. Demers' research interests are in anthropological methods and in the related areas of disenfranchisement from community, actions that compromise physical and mental health, and evaluation of the policy and service interventions designed to help people re-integrate into mainstream society and community. Her particular focus populations are street-involved youth and military soldiers. She is active and has held leadership positions in a variety of national and international health education organizations, including SOPHE, APHA, and the International Union for Health Promotion Education (IUHPE). She was a member of SOPHE’s 21st Century Task Force.
Other Interests: Dr. Demers enjoys spending time with her grandson, running, reading, traveling, and dancing.
Dr. Anne L. Demers
