Biography

Dr. Chandra Ford is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health. Ford earned her doctorate from the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Public Health. Prior to joining UCLA, she completed postdoctoral fellowships in Social Medicine (University of North Carolina) and Epidemiology (Columbia University). Ford's expertise is in social determinants of health inequities among racial and ethnic minorities and among sexual minorities. Her work involves: 1) multilevel conceptualization and measurement of inequities (e.g., racism); 2) use of Critical Race Theory; and; 3) attention to the conventions for producing knowledge about marginalized populations. Ford's research has been published in leading public health journals. Most of this work examines relations between racism-related factors (e.g., perceived everyday racism, residential segregation) and HIV testing or care-seeking among US blacks. Current projects extend this work by examining medical distrust, medical racism and HIV conspiracy beliefs relative to HIV preventive behaviors across diverse racial/ethnic minority populations. Additionally, Ford is involved with a community led assessment of the domestic violence prevention services needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations in Los Angeles. Ford has received several competitive awards and grants. She was a W. K. Kellogg Foundation Kellogg Health Scholar (Columbia University) from 2006-2008 and a North Carolina Impact Award Recipient in 2005. Recent awards include 2009-2010 junior investigator awards from the UCLA AIDS Institute and the UCLA Research Centers for Minority Aging Research/Center for Health Improvement for Minority Elders (RCMAR/CHIME). Dr. Ford was a Kellogg Health Scholar at Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health.