BERNADETTE BODEN-ALBALA
DEAN, PUBLIC HEALTH SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
WHY: Tapped to head launch of new public health school in 2019, soon after oversaw local education, research efforts throughout the pandemic. Joined task force organized by UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman to help educate and support the school’s some 37,600 students, and work with the Orange County Health Care Agency.
NEW SCHOOL: UCI’s Program in Public Health is currently transitioning to become the School of Population and Public Health, which will be housed in the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, located on Michael Drake Drive.
FUTURE PLANS: Increasing awareness about how a lack of medical resources prevents health equity across Orange County. Her public health program aims to address local public health concerns, with the support of a recent $14 million grant from Irvine Health Foundation.
IN THEIR WORDS: Over the years, “we’ve talked about a number of different ways that OC can be this incredible model for public health,” she said. “We have diversity around the county, with some of the wealthiest folks in America and some of the poorest. It has all the problems that everybody else is grappling with.”
