Bernadette Boden-Albala 
Director of Program in Public Health and Founding Dean of proposed School of Population Health | UC Irvine
Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES
Bernadette Boden-Albala, Dr.P.H., is a renowned researcher & administrator who researches community-based stroke & heart disease prevention.
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Biography
Bernadette Boden-Albala, Dr.P.H., is a renowned researcher and administrator whose efforts to reduce health disparities for America’s disadvantaged became a blueprint for community-based stroke and heart disease prevention. She is the director of the Program in Public Health and and founding dean of the proposed School of Population Health.
Areas of Expertise (4)
Stroke and heart disease prevention
Public Health
Infectious Diseases
COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Education (1)
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health: DrPH, MPH, Sociomedical Science
Links (1)
Media Appearances (19)
Stomach Bugs Basically Disappeared During COVID Lockdowns—Now They May Be Surging Back
Health online
2023-08-30
Even with solid precautions in place, however, it’s not always possible to prevent transmission. “Food and water can get contaminated, and travelers from areas with poor sanitation can bring viruses,” Bernadette Boden Albala, MPH, DrPH, the director and founding dean of the program in public health at University of California, Irvine, told Health.
Should You Wait to Get the New COVID-19 Booster?
Verywell Health online
2023-08-29
Another reason to wait for the new booster in the fall is that COVID infections have historically peaked during the winter, according to Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH, director and founding dean of the Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine. “The best time to get the updated booster will be in the fall, around October and November, so that you are best protected against the historically peak infection times around December to February,” Boden-Albala told Verywell.
The 10 Best COVID-19 Face Masks to Mitigate Airborne Illness
Verywell Health online
2023-08-15
Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH, director [and founding dean] of the UCI Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine explains that masks can still be beneficial in crowded public areas like in hospitals, on public transit, or at events like sports games and concerts. … A disposable surgical mask should typically be used once and is great for activities in public settings. But if you’re up close and personal with people, such as visiting family members, Dr. Boden-Albala recommends wearing an N95.
A Roadmap To Health Equity: Addressing The Conditions Of Our Environment That Affect Our Health
Forbes online
2023-08-09
Bernadette Boden-Albala, director and founding dean of UCI Program in Public Health writes, “As a public health researcher and leader in higher education who has spent the last 30 years defining and intervening on social determinants of health, I believe we are at a fork in the road, and we need to redraw the map toward equitable health and well-being. … We must acknowledge the substantial evidence in peer-reviewed literature that shows that health disparities exist and that social, environmental, and economic factors play a large role in determining one’s health. … We need to expand our vision around health to shift the paradigm. … We must nurture a workforce who is equipped to address future health challenges and optimize a more effective, sustainable public health infrastructure.”
COVID Cases Are Rising Again. Is It Still Dangerous to Get Infected?
Verywell Health online
2023-08-08
Recent research indicates that immunity from a prior COVID infection provides strong protection against severe illness, according to Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH, the director and founding dean of the Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine. “Coupled with strong evidence that vaccines protect against severe outcomes as well, most of our communities have developed long-term immunity,” Boden-Albala told Verywell. … Boden-Albala said the risk is still significant for older adults, those with medical conditions such as diabetes or heart or lung disease, and people who are immunocompromised.
We asked: Should I cancel a cruise if my ship had norovirus?
The Washington Post online
2023-07-20
So how far do you need to go to evade the stomach bug on your vacation? Let’s start with what I heard from Bernadette Boden-Albala, the director and founding dean of the Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine, who has extensively researched and studied norovirus and is still a fan of cruise travel. In fact, she emailed me from a cruise ship. Her take: You don’t need to rebook if you hear there’s been an outbreak on the sailing before yours. You and the cruise line are on the same page — nobody wants you getting sick on board. “Norovirus is a worst fear for all cruise lines,” Boden-Albala said. [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/news/post]
A ‘communi-versity’ model is how UCI aims to improve health of OC’s Latinx and Vietnamese families
The Orange County Register online
2023-07-20
“Early on, I realized that to understand diseases, you have to understand community context — where people are living, what their environment is and all those things that impact the way in which they experience disease,” said Bernadette Boden-Albala, the director of the UC Irvine Program in Public Health and the founding dean of the future UCI School of Population and Public Health. The only way to really understand a disease and the risk factors for it, as an academic researcher, she said, was to go into the community, build relationships with residents and spend time with them — a “communi-versity” model.
Norovirus Oubreaks on Cruise Ships: How to Avoid Getting Sick on Vacation
Health online
2023-07-17
Norovirus, which causes inflammation of the stomach or intestines, typically causes diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and stomach pain Bernadette Boden-Albala, DrPH, MPH, director and founding dean of the Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine told Health. Other symptoms can include fever, headache, and body aches. … “Infected people spread the virus widely and make it difficult for public health officials to contain the virus,” Boden-Albala said.
In an Era of No Affirmative Action: The Right Reasons for Diversifying The Health Workforce
Forbes online
2023-07-07
Bernadette Boden Albala, Director and Founding Dean of UC Irvine [Program in] Public Health writes, “The Supreme Court’s rejection of race being considered for admission criteria at two of the country's most storied universities, Harvard and UNC Chapel Hill, will have devastating implications for the diversity of our healthcare workforce pipeline. … As the founding dean of UC Irvine Public Health, home to one of the largest undergraduate public health student bodies in the field where more than half of our graduating class are first-generation college students, I want to share evidence around the importance of a diverse workforce in the healthcare profession.”
OC 50 2023 – 50 Shaping the Future of Healthcare in OC
Orange County Business Journal online
2023-05-30
Bernadette Boden-Albala, [Director and Founding] Dean, Program in Public Health, UCI. 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. … 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 ….
It's 'critical' to fix racial inequities in stroke care, new report says
American Heart Association online
2023-05-15
Stroke care is rife with inequities, and fixing them will require more research into issues such as structural racism and other "upstream" social factors that affect where people live, learn, work and play, a new report says. … Bernadette Boden-Albala, [director and founding dean of the program in public health], of the University of California, Irvine, who served as vice chair of the writing group, said it's critical that those populations "participate in research so that researchers may collaborate in addressing the communities' needs and concerns."
UCI receives ‘unprecedented’ grant to hire experts to address public health needs
The Orange County Register online
2023-04-03
A $14 million gift from the Irvine Health Foundation will be used to help further establish UC Irvine‘s Program in Public Health as a community resource on public health research and work. The Program in Public Health will use the funds to establish seven endowed chairs .… It will be “hiring experts that are going to work on issues and health problems in Orange County together with communities in Orange County,” said Bernadette Boden-Albala, [founding dean and] the program’s director. … “We are incredibly grateful for this support from the Irvine Health Foundation,” said Steve A.N. Goldstein, UCI’s vice chancellor for health affairs. “Their generosity takes us one step closer to transforming the Program in Public Health into a school and enables us to attract additional superb public health faculty who prioritize world-class research and community health.”
UCI Lands $14M Grant from Irvine Health Foundation
Orange County Business Journal online
2023-04-03
The lack of access to medical resources has been a longstanding barrier to health equity across Orange County, according to University of California, Irvine Program in Public Health Director [and Founding Dean] Bernadette Boden-Albala. … Her program aims to address local public health concerns with the support of a $14 million grant it recently received from Irvine Health Foundation. … UCI’s incoming health equity initiatives will be led by faculty recruited through the grant. The funding establishes seven chairs that will feature academic leaders in various areas of health expertise, including nutrition, cardiovascular, aging-induced cognitive impairment and public policy.
Aaron Sorkin Had Stroke at 61: What are the Symptoms and Risk Factors
Healthline online
2023-03-24
According to Bernadette Boden-Albala, DrPh, founding dean of the program in public health at University of California, Irvine, the seemingly simple divide between modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors gets complicated by what are known as social determinants of health. … “We don’t live our lives alone. We live our lives, with families in networks. And we’re totally inspired sometimes… So, if everybody’s a smoker in my household, and you tell me ‘Don’t smoke, because you’re at high risk for heart disease [and] stroke,’ but everybody else in my house smokes, how likely am I going to be to stop smoking?” … Boden-Albala said she’s hopeful more people are learning about stroke and the risk factors for the condition.
COVID disparities grow as California ends state of emergency
CalMatters online
2023-02-28
“After the (state of emergency) ends, there’s not going to be any more substantial money given to COVID-19,” said Bernadette Boden-Albala, [director and founding] dean of UC Irvine’s public health program. “All of the attempts to get information out, to vaccinate folks in harder-to-reach communities, is going to get much harder and at best will be forced into other programs.” … “Everyone wants to throw these health problems back to individuals and individual choice. That doesn’t help us serve the population,” UC Irvine Public Health Dean Boden-Albala said. “Disparities are not about the choices you make but about problems in infrastructure.”
Tools to predict stroke risk work less well for Black patients, study finds
STAT online
2023-02-22
Experts pointed to literature showing that applying machine learning algorithms to traditional epidemiologic data begets similar results — biases and all — if the patient information available hasn’t changed. “The algorithm can only predict as much as the data it is fed so it is not surprising that it is not accurately predicting risk in communities of color. We need a dataset that is more comprehensive that includes variables from structural bias to discrimination to neighborhood pollution,” Bernadette Boden-Albala, director and founding dean of the UC Irvine Program in Public Health, told STAT in an email.
These Are the Most Common Symptoms of Covid This Winter
Men's Health online
2023-01-31
According to Bernadette Boden Albala, MPH, Dr.P.H., director and founding dean of the University of California, Irvine’s Program in Public Health, just like with most winters, it’s not uncommon for many people to be dealing with coughing, congestion, and sore throats right now, all of which can signal the flu, common cold, RSV, and, yes, Covid. … “With infections rising due to XBB.1.5, Covid-19 vaccines have shown to be effective at preventing hospitalization and severe disease and even long Covid,” she says.
Doctors Want You to Know This About Heart Disease
Eat This, Not That! online
2022-11-12
"Cardiovascular disease affects more than 121.5 million adults in the U.S per year but can largely be prevented by lifestyle choices," Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH, Director and Founding Dean, University of California, Irvine Program in Public Health tells Eat This, Not That! Health
Here's When to Expect a 4th COVID-19 Bivalent Booster Vaccine
Good Housekeeping online
2022-08-28
These new booster vaccines will also aim to rebuild immunity to the original coronavirus strain that people gained earlier on in the pandemic, explains Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH, the director of the University of California, Irvine's program in public health.
Articles (5)
Unrecognized implementation science engagement among health researchers in the USA: a national survey
Implementation Science CommunicationsElizabeth R. Stevens, Donna Shelley, and Bernadette Boden-Albala
2020 Implementation science (IS) has the potential to serve an important role in encouraging the successful uptake of evidence-based interventions. The current state of IS awareness and engagement among health researchers, however, is relatively unknown
Abstract WP366: Exploring the Association Between Physician Trust and Recurrent Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)
StrokeAnita Venkatesan, Bernadette Boden-Albala, Nina Parikh, Emily Goldmann
2020 More positive health behaviors, fewer symptoms, higher quality of life, and greater treatment satisfaction have been reported among those with greater physician trust. This study assessed the relationship between physician trust and recurrent stroke/TIA within 1 year of discharge among stroke survivors in Northern Manhattan.
Abstract TP430: A Family/Friend Network Approach to Secondary Stroke Prevention: Findings From the FURRThER Pilot
StrokeBernadette Boden Albala, Joyce O'Connor, Noa Appleton, Michael Parides
2020 Despite prevention strategies with proven efficacy, recurrent stroke rates, especially in minority populations, remain high. Mobilizing stroke patients’ social networks on risk reduction goals may optimize secondary prevention efforts. Families/Friends Understanding Risk Reduction Through Educational Reinforcement (FURRThER) is a culturally-tailored, social network-based intervention facilitated by an interactive web portal and targeted at management of vascular risk factors.
A Systematic Review of Environmental Health Outcomes in Selected American Indian and Alaska Native Populations
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health DisparitiesGabriella Y. Meltzer, Beverly-Xaviera Watkins, Dorice Vieira, Judith T. Zelikoff & Bernadette Boden-Albala
2020 Economic and social marginalization among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) results in higher chronic disease prevalence. Potential causal associations between toxic environmental exposures and adverse health outcomes within AI/AN communities are not well understood.
Barriers to engagement in implementation science research: a national survey
Translational Behavioral MedicineTranslational Behavioral Medicine
2020 Low levels of engagement in implementation science (IS) among health researchers is a multifaceted issue. With the aim of guiding efforts to increase engagement in IS research, we sought to identify barriers to engagement in IS within the health research community. We performed an online survey of health researchers in the United States in 2018. Basic science researchers were excluded from the sample.
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