OUR TEAM

Laura Schmidt

Laura A. Schmidt, PhD, is a Professor of Health Policy in the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. She holds a joint appointment in the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. She received her PhD training in sociology at UC Berkeley and while there, also completed doctoral coursework in public health.

Dr. Schmidt seeks to understand how changing lifestyles are contributing to rising rates of chronic disease across the globe and what to do about it. Her work explores the growing pressures of globalizing economies, rising inequality, and the marketization of products that undermine our health. She works directly with policymakers to craft and implement evidence-based policies that reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods and other commercial products that harm human and planetary health.

Laurie Jacobs

Dr. Laurie Jacobs, PhD, is a ** at the Philip R, Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.  She received her PhD training in **

Leslie Gerstenfeld

Leslie Gerstenfeld, MS, is a Research Assistant at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.  She conducted graduate work in Hazardous Materials Management and Environmental Health at Tufts University and the Institute for Global Health at the University of California at San Francisco.  Her work explores risk communication associated with environmental hazards, the interaction between food insecurity, water insecurity, and obesity, and improving food access in food deserts. 

James Roake

James Roake, MS, is a Research Assistant at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.  He conducted graduate work at the Institute for Global Health at the University of California at San Francisco. His is engaged in the exploration of the role of the tobacco industry in the food system.

Leah Hill

Daniel Duaybis

Daniel Duaybis works in the .... UCSF and studies Nutrition and ... at University of California at Berkeley.