Research Spotlight

Meet the current students, academics and members of the staff highlighted for their work in tobacco related research! 

  • Tobacco Research
  • portrait of hiba nazHiba Naz - Project Policy Analyst II

    I'm a Project Policy Analyst at CHPR. My research project involves tobacco treatment in the ED. Our goal is to improve the referral process in the ED and increase quitline engagement. I am also involved with the Breathe Free Tracker project that uses an online tracking tool to track cigarette and e-cigarette litter on campus. The purpose of this project is to find hotspots on campus and promote the STF policy in those areas.

    I have learned that we have a collective responsibility to enforce the STF policy. The students and faculty of UCD want this campus to truly become a STF campus and it is evident by their increasing participation with the tracking tool. 

    I grew up in a medically under-served community and avowed to become a physician who will serve similar communities. However, as I have learned more about becoming a physician, I have also learned that we need to do more to prevent diseases rather than just reacting to them. Tobacco control is an important aspect of making sure that our youth is healthy and not vulnerable to lifelong diseases such as cancer.
  • Smoke & Tobacco Free Research

  • portrait of raeann davisRaeann Davis - Health Promotion Specialist

    How are you involved with the STF policy or tobacco related research?
    My colleague and I, Keavagh Clift, are currently working to implement two grants to increase access to cessation resources on campus and to raise awareness about vaping. I also oversee Health Education and Promotion students, who work on policy outreach, cigarette butt clean-ups, collecting data and getting the word out about Tracker the Squirrel.

    Why are you interested/passionate about a Smoke & Tobacco Free campus or tobacco related research?
    I believe that everyone has a right to breathe clean air on our college campus.

    Please share something you learned or that surprised you about this effort.
    I am constantly surprised at the sneaky efforts of vape companies and how much vaping is increasing on our campus. Vape companies run so many PSA's about how they're "helping prevent youth use" or "limiting flavors," but if you take a closer look, it's often because they had no choice. Every major big tobacco company owns at least one vape company. It's no surprise they are using the same tactics they've always used by targeting youth and marginalized communities. I just can't believe we came so far with tobacco prevention/control, and now we're fighting all the same battles again.

    portrait of sabrina loureiroSabrina Loureiro - Research Assistant

    Hi! My name is Sabrina and I’m a fourth year Global Disease Biology major. I also work as a research assistant at the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research where I first got involved with Breathe Free Tracker. My role on the Breathe Free Tracker project involves conducting and assisting in qualitative analyses, assisting in student outreach, and coming up with ways to improve the tool in order to promote a smoke free campus.

  • Health Promotion Among International Students

  • portrait of andersen yangAndersen Yang - MPH Candidate

    There is growing concern of a rise in smoking prevalence among international students across the nation. Though existing research on the health of international students is sparse, we aim to increase more of the discussion around this topic.

    This project focuses on a health message campaign that promotes tobacco prevention to international students at UC Davis. This year-long project comprises of three phases: outreach, data collection, and refinement of health messages.

    1. In the outreach phase, we started marketing language specific- tobacco quit-line advertisements in Chinese and Korean to new students at events on campus.

    2. During the data collection phase, we will be conducting focus groups with international smoker and nonsmoker students to inform us about their opinions on tobacco prevention.

    3. Finally, we will work towards using those data to refine the key health messages in addition to testing the messages via follow-up surveys.

    We hope to pilot this project in order to address the socio-behavioral aspects of smoking among the international student population.     

  • Tobacco Treatment in ED
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  • Basic Sciences
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