Gina S. Lovasi, PhD

Gina Schellenbaum Lovasi is an assistant professor in Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the effects of local urban infrastructure on health and health behaviors, as well as differences in these effects across population subgroups, such as young children and adults with different racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic backgrounds. Lovasi received her PhD and MPH in epidemiology from the University of Washington, where her research examined neighborhood walkability and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics as determinants of physical activity and cardiovascular risk. Lovasi came to Columbia University as a RWJF Health and Society Scholar in 2006, and continues to work with this interdisciplinary training program as associate director. Lovasi is an investigator with the Built Environment and Health (www.beh.columbia.edu/about) project, conducting research within New York City exploring how physical and social environments could be changed to better support physical activity and a healthy weight. She also convened an interdisciplinary working group on Social Networks and Health, and co-organized a conference on the intersection between social network and spatial analysis (www.capturingcontext.org).