Dr. Roshan Bastani, Ph.D., is a professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Director of the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research. In the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, she is Director for Disparities and Community Engagement and Co-Director for Cancer Control and Survivorship program. She also served an 11-year term as Associate Dean for Research in the School of Public Health.

Dr. Bastani is a social and health psychologist who has been conducting health disparities intervention research for over 35 years, with a focus on implementing rigorous yet pragmatic individual, community, and system-directed intervention trials to improve quality of care and health outcomes, and reduce disparities. She has led a large number of studies among low income, ethnic minority and immigrant populations in both clinical and community settings, and has had continuous research funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1988. Her research is conceptually grounded and includes strong and equitable community partnerships. Her methodological expertise includes survey research; qualitative and quantitative methods; research design; comparative effectiveness trials; program evaluation; implementation science; and utilization of electronic health records and other administrative databases for research.

Dr. Bastani’s research includes studies on breast, colorectal, lung, cervix, and prostate cancer screening and diagnostic follow-up; hepatitis B screening; tobacco control; melanoma prevention; obesity control; liver disease; and HPV vaccine uptake. This work includes examination of the drivers of disparities among underserved groups, implementation of pragmatic intervention trials to mitigate observed disparities, methodological studies, as well as studies to advance theory in the field. Examples of current/recent research include system-focused pragmatic implementation trials to increase HPV vaccine uptake among low income, ethnic minority adolescents in the county health department and two large multi-site Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) (NCI R01; PCORI); a system-level cluster-randomized obesity prevention trial set in preschools located in underserved neighborhoods (NICHD R01); a trial of a multilevel, system intervention to improve CRC screening in a large FQHC serving an ethnic minority population (CA-TRDRP); a study to identify gaps in clinical care processes contributing to low rates of diagnostic follow-up of abnormal findings on Fecal Immunochemical Testing (NCI R03); an evaluation of effective approaches for reducing the excess cervical cancer burden in Malawi and Kenya (NCI R56); a trial of a multilevel health system intervention to increase surveillance colonoscopy for high risk polyps (NCI R01); and studies to increase uptake of lung cancer screening (TRDRP) among high-risk groups.

In addition to conducting her own research, Dr. Bastani devotes considerable effort to mentoring junior investigators, particularly individuals traditionally underrepresented in science and those interested in research among underserved populations. For over 15 years, she led a National Cancer Institute post-doctoral career development program with a heavy focus on transdisciplinary cancer control training and disparities research.