Ninez A. Ponce

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for our California communities, and our hearts are with everyone affected by the devastating wildfires.

Thank you to those on the front lines, including our brave firefighters and first responders who are working around the clock to contain the fires and risking their lives to protect us.

Last week, I loaded my car with photos, art, and my father’s medal from when he took the CPA exam, and my cat, and evacuated my home in Topanga. Like many Californians, I didn’t know if my house would still be standing after the fires were over. But I considered myself lucky: my family is healthy and safe; we have housing, food, and essentials; and we are surrounded by a community that continues to amaze me. The inspiring acts of generosity and kindness, the spirit of unity, the strength and resilience of our community: You are what makes LA.

Tens of thousands of people in Southern California are displaced, struggling with poor air quality, and in urgent need of help. Recovering from the physical, emotional, financial, environmental, and ecological impacts of wildfires takes years.

Last October, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) released data from the 2023 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) on wildfires and extreme weather-related events:

Nearly 1 in 8 (12.2%) California adults said they experienced a wildfire in the past two years and about 2 in 5 (41.3%) California adults experienced smoke from a wildfire in the past two years.

Among adults whose households experienced an extreme-weather related event in the past two years, 1 in 5 (19.9%) said their physical health was harmed by smoke from wildfire and nearly 1 in 7 (13.3%) said their mental health was harmed by smoke from wildfire.

Among adults who experienced smoke from wildfires in the past two years, 2 in 3 (65.3%) said they accessed filtered air in their home when exposed to wildfire smoke and 1 in 3 (34.7%) did not access filtered air in their home. There were significant differences across sociodemographic factors, including income: 69.6% of adults with incomes 300% of the federal poverty level (FPL) accessed filtered air in their homes, significantly higher than 53.2% of adults with incomes 0–99% FPL who accessed filtered air. U.S.-born citizens (67.8%) were more likely to access filtered air in their home compared to non-citizens (50.7%).

Among adolescents in California, 29.6% said climate change makes them feel nervous, depressed, or emotionally stressed.

We encourage you to explore these findings on our AskCHIS platforms.

As a community of researchers, advocates, health care organizations, agencies, funders, journalists, and policymakers, we must work together: to conduct more research on wildfires and better understand the broad effects on health, to mitigate risk, to inform policies, and to help each other recover. 

I am so grateful for the outpouring of support we’ve received from our colleagues, partners, and friends around the nation. 

Please continue to take care of each other. 

Ninez 

Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, MPP
Director, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Principal Investigator, California Health Interview Survey
Professor and Fred W. & Pamela K. Wasserman Endowed Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

Ninez Ponce discusses the importance of data equity at a White House panel

UCLA CHPR Director Ninez Ponce invited to the White House to talk about data equity at a panel for AANHPI Heritage Month

Media Contact:
UCLA CHPR Communications Team

On May 3, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Director Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, MPP, was featured on a panel of distinguished community leaders and researchers at the White House Forum on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. 

Hosted by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI), the all-day forum included breakout convenings, panels, and artistic performances to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month. 

Ponce, who also serves as endowed chair and professor of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, was part of the Advancing Justice Through Data Equity breakout convening held from 9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m. ET.

“This is an exciting opportunity to both celebrate the historic achievements of AANHPI communities and work toward a better future for all Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders,” Ponce says. “It is an honor to collaborate with leaders from across the nation who are passionate about advancing equity and justice for all AANHPIs.”  

By 2060, AANHPI populations are projected to increase to 10% of the U.S. population, yet a lack of disaggregated data masks the experiences, priorities, and challenges of these diverse communities and hinders the allocation of federal resources. Ponce, a champion for data disaggregation and data equity, discussed the need for and importance of data equity, along with the work being done at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research’s Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Data Policy Lab and California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). 

The panel also included Gregg Orton, national director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans; Fontane Lo, deputy director of AAPI Data; Kham Moua, national deputy director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center; and Neil Ruiz, head of Pew Research Initiatives at the Pew Research Center.  

The White House Forum featured remarks from Vice President Kamala Harris and other members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet; convened diverse federal government leaders, state, and local elected officials as well as community advocates, business leaders, and influencers to celebrate the rich history and contributions of AA and NHPI communities; and highlighted the Biden-Harris Administration’s progress and commitments to advance equity, justice, and opportunity for AA and NHPI communities. 

This year’s theme is “Visible Together,” in which the White House Office of Public Engagement invited everyone to “reflect on the power of community — and acknowledge the intense, generational challenges and opportunities that come with coalition building.”

About the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health policy information for California. UCLA CHPR improves the public’s health through high quality, objective, and evidence-based research and data that informs effective policymaking. UCLA CHPR is the home of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and is part of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health​.

Ninez Ponce, CHIS principal investigator and professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, became Center Director July 1. In a brief interview, Ponce discusses the path that led her to the Center, the roots of health inequality, and more.

Q: How did you begin your career and end up at the Center?

​I was a volunteer for the Berkeley Free Clinic. The Berkeley Free Clinic experience made me think about the importance of health care as a right and not a privilege. I was also very interested in public health policy, because … I thought that fixing the health care system and health populations required multiple sectors and not just the medical sector.

I worked in Thailand with a relief organization looking at development and child nutrition. When I came back to the United States and graduated, I started working on immigrant health, a transnational link between domestic and international health. I got very passionate about data disaggregation particularly for the Asian American and the Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander community and then began advocacy work in that I was very moved by making a difference in public health.

One day, I got a note from Dr. E Richard Brown. It felt like that was a big pivot in my career that planted the seed in wanting to be an academic, do better data collection, better evidence for public health, and that was the beginning of my career in public health that was based here at the Center.
 

Q: What do you see as the emerging public health trend in the future?

​I think it’s happening now. There is recognition that the population’s health problems as well as the inequities that occur in health are not produced solely by the health care system. Some of these problems are beyond the clinical walls and that they may have been generated in not just what the individual has been exposed to in their lifetime but it could have been generational disadvantages ― this notion of institutional racism and structural disadvantages.

I think what’s emerging is that trying to come up with a wider system of care that collaborates in addressing needs for patients with complex clinical problems and complex social problems.
 

Q: What would you be doing if you could go back and pick another line of work to go into?

​​I would be an architect, because I like structure and how design influences how people gather, live, and get together. I would want to design homes that are efficient and aesthetically pleasing that can solve our homelessness problem here. There is also a part of me, the data part of me, which wishes I were a computer scientist. I want to gather all the freely available data that is out there and come up with much humanized stories and public health insights.