Team

Peter L. Schnall MD, MPH

Director, Center for Social Epidemiology
Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, Irvine
email: pschnall@workhealth.org
Twitter: @pschnall

Peter is a recognized expert and active researcher on the role of occupational stress in causing hypertension and cardiovascular disease. His long-standing interest in the role that work organizations and psychosocial stressors play in the development of hypertension and other CVD risk factors began while practicing medicine for 8 years at the Martin Luther King Health Center (MLKHC) located in the South Bronx. He became aware of a possible role for environmental factors in the etiology of “essential hypertension” when he first noticed…Read more

Marnie Dobson, PhD

Associate Director, Center for Social Epidemiology
email: mdobson@uci.edu
Twitter: @MarnieDee1

Marnie has been working as a consultant with the Center for Social Epidemiology since 2005. She is collaborating with Dr. Peter Schnall and Dr. BongKyoo Choi at the UC Irvine Center for Occupational and Environmental Health on occupational health survey projects with CWA, HERE and the Orange County Fire Authority and IAFF Local 3631. Her research interests focus on gender and work, emotional labor, and work organization/psychosocial stressors and mental health outcomes. She is a co-editor and contributing author in the new book Unhealthy Work: Causes, consequences, cures, published this summer by…Read more

Paul A. Landsbergis PhD, MPH, EdD

Associate Professor
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
School of Public Health
email: paul.landsbergis@downstate.edu

Paul Landsbergis worked on a variety of projects together with Center staff during 2010. First, he helped to publish a book chapter on job strain and cardiovascular disease for the second edition of the Handbook of Occupational Health Psychology. Second, he is in the process of working on several new manuscripts, including a meta-analysis of job strain and ambulatory blood pressure…Read more

BongKyoo Choi, ScD, MPH

Assistant Professor
Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
University of California Irvine
email: b.choi@uci.edu

BongKyoo is collaborating with Dr. Peter Schnall and Dr. Marnie Dobson at the UC Irvine Center for Occupational and Environmental Health on occupational health survey projects with CWA, HERE and the Orange County Fire Authority and IAFF Local 3631. His research interests focus on work, obesity, and work organization/psychosocial stressors and mental health outcomes. Read more

Ellen Rosskam, PhD, MPH

Associate, Center for Social Epidemiology
Principal, Rosskam International Development Consulting

Ellen is a former Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, is Adjunct Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Work Environment Department, and Visiting Senior Fellow…Read more

Arturo Juárez-García, PhD

Full-time Professor, Psychological and Research Services Unit
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, México

Arturo has been Board Member of the National Federation of Occupational Health in Mexico since 2009 and recently was appointed as National Secretary for Mexico by the International Comission of Occupational Health…Read more

Viviola Gómez Ortiz, PhD

Associate Professor, Psychology Department
School of Social Sciences, Universidad de los Andes

Viviola has been teaching and doing researching for over 20 years on stress related topics. For the last 10 years her research interests have concentrated on the interactive impact of work and family roles on the health of workers and on the health impact of psychosocial stress at work on different occupational groups in Colombia. She has been supervising master and doctoral students…Read more

Pouran Faghri, MD, MS, FACSM

Department of Allied Health Sciences
University of Connecticut
email: Pouran.Faghri@uconn.edu

Professor Faghri is affiliated with the Departments of Allied Health Sciences (https://alliedhealth.uconn.edu/faculty/faghri-pouran/), Community Medicine and Health Care (Public Health), and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut. She is the director of the Center for Environmental Health and Health Promotion at the University of Connecticut. Presently, and following her visiting professor scholar appointment at the University of California, Los Angeles, she is collaborating with researchers at the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center at UCLA as well as the UC Irvine Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and Center for Social Epidemiology…Read more

Donald Goldmacher, MD

Partner, Co-producer, Connecting the Dots Productions
Twitter: @donnyg1941</a

Donald is a longtime filmmaker, labor advocate, activist, and community psychiatrist with decades of experience observing, documenting and participating in social change. His most recent documentary film, HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream, has received a great deal of critical reviewer support.

Sherry Reson, BA

Community Outreach
Connecting the Dots Productions
Twitter: @Sherry_Reson

Cass Ben-Levi, MA

Director, Continuing Education and Outreach, Southern California NIOSH Education and Research Center
Facebook: UCLA SCERC, Twitter: @UCLASCERC

Cass has been the Director of Continuing Education and Outreach for the Southern California National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center located at UCLA, providing courses on workplace safety and health to occupational health and safety professionals and workers. Throughout her career she has worked to improve the lives of working people and the underserved.

Maria Doctor, BA

Associate Producer
email: workingonempty.project@gmail.com
Twitter: @FieldsOPlenty

From a working class family in Indiana, Maria earned her B.A. in Cinema-TV Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2008 and has since developed both her creative and business acumen to illuminate true stories and inspire all people.