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 the UCLA Center for Prevention Research. In the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, she is Director for Disparities and Community Engagement, Co-Director for Cancer Control and Survivorship, and Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control. 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 three decades, with a focus on implementing rigorous yet pragmatic individual, community, and system-directed intervention trials to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities. She has led a large number of studies targeting low income, ethnic minority and immigrant populations, 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 quantitative methods; survey research; research design; comparative effectiveness trials; implementation research and program evaluation.

Dr. Bastani’s research includes studies on breast, cervix, colorectal 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 her current research include two system-focused 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 pragmatic trial); a system-level cluster-randomized obesity prevention intervention trial set in preschools located in underserved neighborhoods (NICHD R01); an implementation trial of a multilevel, system intervention to improve CRC screening in a large FQHC serving an ethnic minority, low income population (California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program-TRDRP); and an observational 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).

In addition to conducting her own research, Dr. Bastani devotes considerable effort to mentoring junior investigators, particularly minority individuals 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.