HOPE Consortium
Healthy Outcomes of Pregnancy for Everyone through Science, Partnership, and Equity
Founders and HOPE Partners
The HOPE Consortium consists of fouders, co-founders, core-staff and trainees, HOPE partner iinvestigators, community members, and study participants. Listed here are the founders, core staff, trainees, and HOPE partner investigators who work across the consortium and on many of the nested studies. Study specific teams are listed within study pages as well.
Core Team and Founders
Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, PhD, MS, Primary Founder and Lead
Dr. Jelliffe-Pawlowski is a HOPE Consortium Founder and serves as its lead. She is a Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and of Global Health Sciences in the UCSF School of Medicine, She serves as Director of Discovery and Precision Health for the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative and is a PI for the HOPE, CPPOP, PROMPT, and THRIVE studies..
Rebecca Baer, MPH, Senior Epidemiologist
Ms. Baer serves as a Senior Epidemiologist for Prenatal Investigations for the HOPE study. She is a senior epidemiologist and analyst at UCSD and is a researcher with the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative.
Scott Oltman, MS, Senior Epidemiologist
Mr. Oltman is a Senior Epidemiologist for Postnatal Investigations for the HOPE study. He is a senior epidemiologist and analyst at UCSF in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and in Global Health Sciences and is a researcher with the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative.
Ribka Amsalu Tessera, MD, MSc, MAS, Co-Investigator and Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Amsalu serves as a Co-Investigator on the HOPE study. She is a postdoctoral scholar with the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative.
Safyer McKenzie-Sampson, MSc, Co-Investigator and Postgraduate Researcher
Dr. McKenzie-Sampson is a postgraduate reseracher at Stanford University. She is an expert in the role of structural racism on pregnancy outcomes and serves a key role in investigating these patterns across HOPE efforts.
Odessa Garay, Graduate Student Researcher
Ms. Garay is a graduate student researcher with the HOPE study working together with investigators at San Francisco State University. She is a Genentech Foundation Scholar who assists with community outreach as well as in investigating how societal and cellular factors contribute to pregnancy and infant outcoomes.
Adriana Alejandra Mejia Lopez, Student Researcher
Ms. Lopez is a student researcher with the HOPE study working in partnership with investigators at San Francisco State University. She is a Genentech Foundation Scholar serving key roles in community outreach as well as in helping understand cell-to-society contributors to healthy pregnancy and infant outcomes.
Larry Rand, MD, Co-Founder and Lead, Maternal and Fetal Clinical Investigation
Dr. Rand is a HOPE Consortium Co-Founder and serves as its Primary Lead of Maternal and Fetal Clinical Investigation. He is the Marc and Lynne Benioff Endowed Chair in Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences in the UCSF School of Medicine. He is the Primary Investigator of the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative. Dr. Rand also serves as Primary Lead of Maternal and Fetal Clinical Investigation for the HOPE COVID-19 study.
Elizabeth Rogers, MD, Co-Founder and Lead, Newborn and Pediatric Clinical Investigation
Dr. Rogers is a HOPE Consoritum Founder and serves as its Primary Lead of the Newborn and Pediatric Clinical Investigation. She is a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at UCSF, Associate Vice Chair for Faculty Development, and Director of the Intensive Care Nursery ROOTS Small Baby Program. Dr. Rogers also serves as Primary Lead of Newborn and Pediatric Investigation for the HOPE COVID-19 study and serves as a PI on the PROMPT study as one of three multiple-PIs with Dr. Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski (UCSF) and Dr. Kelli Ryckman (Indiana University).
Tina Chambers, PhD, MPH, Co-Founder
Dr. Chambers is a HOPE Consortium Co-Founder. Dr. Chambers is a Professor of Pediatrics at UCSD and is the Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Pediatrics at UCSD and at Rady Children's Hospital. She co-directs the Center for the Promotion of Maternal Health and Infant Development in the Department of Pediatrics at UCSD and is the President of MotherToBaby California. She is also PI of the San Diego Study of Outcomes in Mother's and Infants (SOMI). Dr. Chambers also serves as Co-PI on the HOPE COVID-19 study.
Other HOPE Partners (alphabetical)
Gretchen Bandoli, PhD, MPH
Dr. Bandoli serves as Co-Lead of the HOPE efforts and collaboration at UCSD. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Family Medicine and Public Health at UCSD.
April Bell, PhD, MPH
Dr. Bell is an Assistant Professor of Family Community Medicine in the UCSF School of Medicine.
Kacie Blackman, PhD
Dr. Blackman is an Assistant Professor in the Health Equity and Research (HERE) Center and the Department of Health Sciences at California State University, Northridge.
Bridgette Blebu, PhD, MPH
Dr. Blebu is a Faculty Investigator at the Lundquist Institute at Hardbor-UCLA.
Joseph Derisi, PhD
Dr. Derisi is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the UCSF School of Medicine and is Co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg BioHub.
Jennifer Felder, PhD
Dr. Felder an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences within the UCSF School of Medicine.
Jonathan Fuchs, MD, MPH
Dr. Fuchs is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF and is also the Director of the Center for Learning and Innovation at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. He also serves as the Director of Collective Impact for the UCSF California PTBi.
Miriam Kuppermann, PhD, MPH
Dr. Kuppermann is a professor at UCSF in the Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and Epidemiology & Biostatistics in the School of Medicine at UCSF. She is also the Director of the Preconception and Prenatal Interventions and the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative.
Liang Liang, PhD
Dr. Liang is a Co-Investigator with the HOPE Consortium with deep expertise in metabolomics and multi-omic signaling during pregnancy.
Susan Lynch, PhD
Dr. Lynch is a Professor of Medicine in the UCSF School of Medicine and is Director of the Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine.
Charles McCulloch, PhD,
Dr. McCulloch is a professor of Biostatics and a Vice Chair in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF
Matt Pantell, MD, MS
Dr. Pantell is an Associated Professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine at UCSF.
Nisha Parikh, MD, MPH
Dr. Parikh is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology in the School of Medicine at UCSF.
Brian Piening, PhD
Dr. Piening is the Technical Director for Clinical Genomics at Providence St. Joseph Health in Portland, Oregon and is also the chief of the Immunogenomics Laboratory.
Aric Prather, PhD
Dr. Prather is a Professor of Psychiatry in the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.
Beate Ritz, MD, PhD
Dr. Ritz is a Professor of Epidemiology in the UCLA School of Public Health.
Rebecca Schmidt, PhD
Dr. Schmidt is an Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at UC Davis.
Martina Steurer-Muller, MD
Dr. Steurer-Muller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Neonatology, Pediatric Critical Care and in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF.
Akila Subramanium, MD, MPH
Dr. Subramanium is an Associate Professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Univeristy of Alabama Birmingham.
Karen Tabb Dina, PhD, MSW
Dr. Tabb Dina is a Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
