Sora Park Tanjasiri (born 1964) is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

, and Associate Director for Cancer Health Disparities and Community Engagement at the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research focuses on community health in diverse populations, in particular

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

s and

Asian Americans Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

Early life and education

Tanjasiri earned her undergraduate degree at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She moved to the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, for her graduate studies, where she earned a

Master of Public Health The Master of Public Health or Master of Philosophy in Public Health (M.P.H.), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Master of Medical Science in Public Health (MMSPH) and the Doctor of Public Health (Dr.P.H.), International Masters for Healt ...

and a doctorate. Tanjasiri acted as an advisor for the California Tobacco Control Program from 1992. After earning her doctorate Tanjasiri joined the

, where she completed postdoctoral research in the Department of Environmental Analysis & Design. She was a founding member of the

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (also known as NAPAWF) is a community-based non-profit organization based in Chicago and founded in 1996. They have offices in Atlanta and Washington, DC, as well as 15 chapters across the country. It ...

in 1996, Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance in 1997, and Orange County Women's Health Project in 2011.

Research and career

Tanjasiri joined

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

, in 2003. She was promoted to Professor in 2008, where she was the founding director of the Center for Cancer Disparities Research. In 2010 she was made Director of the Health Promotion Research Institute and in 2014 Chair in the Department of Health Science. In 2005 Tanjasiri launched the research project WINCART (Weaving an Islander Network for Awareness, Research and Training), which looks to improve the health of underserved populations. The early stages of WINCART involved building a network of

community groups and local universities. Tanjasiri has worked to better represent people from underserved communities in biorepositories, as, despite being important in the diagnosis of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

and other diseases, biorepositories typically exclude

s are often hesitant to donate to biorepositories because of distrust in

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

systems, but their exclusion from these databases can have negative impacts on their health and wellbeing. They suffer from higher rates of tobacco use and obesity and lower levels of early cancer detection. WINCART has been supported by the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

, and was most recently awarded $1.5 million from the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

, which has funded Tanjasiri in teaching the

community about cancer research and detection. She has led screening programs for the

Chamorro Chamorro may refer to: * Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific * Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas * Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mari ...

, Marshallese and

Samoans Samoans or Samoan people ( sm, tagata Sāmoa) are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia, who speak the Samoan language. The group's home islands are politically and geographically divided between th ...

who live in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

. At California State University, Fullerton, Tanjasiri has looked to support medical students from minority groups through mentorship and structured programs. Alongside her academic research in

health disparities Health equity arises from access to the social determinants of health, specifically from wealth, power and prestige. Individuals who have consistently been deprived of these three determinants are significantly disadvantaged from health inequiti ...

, Tanjasiri has studied the scholarly outcomes of minority medical students. She was awarded the 2012 Outstanding Professor Award from the California State University, Fullerton, the 2013 Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award from the California Wellness Foundation, and 2015 California State University Wang Family Excellence Awards. In 2018, Tanjasiri moved to the University of California, Irvine, as Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Director for Cancer Health Disparities and Community Engagement. She also continues to volunteer and advise several state, regional and national organizations including the California Dialogue on Cancer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Policy Research Scholars Program, National Cancer Institute's Geographical Management of Cancer Health Disparities Program, and the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review.

Personal life

Tanjasiri is married with two children.

References

External links

UC Irvine faculty page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanjasiri, Sora Park 1964 births Living people People in public health American academics of Korean descent University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Irvine faculty California State University, Fullerton faculty