People

Daniel Soto, EdD, MPH
Assistant Professor Of Clinical Population and Public Health Sciences

Daniel W. Soto, Ed.D, MPH, is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine. He directs the Center for Population Health (CPH). He has over 20 years of population-based health behavior research experience and seven years of curriculum design and teaching experience with graduate and undergraduate programs in public health. Dr. Soto has led research and evaluation efforts on several longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of acculturation, mental health, diabetes prevention, substance use, addressing health disparities, preventing the spread of infectious disease, and tobacco control. Most recently, Dr. Soto led a team of 20+ graduate students to work on preventing the spread of COVID-19 in K-12 schools in Los Angeles County. He has established effective community engagement, recruitment, and retention methods for populations across the United States. Additionally, Dr. Soto has published over 100 manuscripts on acculturation, cultural stress, nicotine addiction, and substance use prevention in adolescents and young adults.

Jennifer Unger, PhD
Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences
Associate Training Director
Director of the PhD Program in Health Behavior Research
Vice Chair for Faculty Development

Jennifer B. Unger, Ph.D. is a Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.  Her research focuses on the psychological, social, and cultural influences on health-risk and health-protective behaviors across populations.  She currently serves as an Associate Director of the USC Coronavirus Pandemic Research Center (CPRC) and co-leads studies of rapid antigen testing in schools and vaccine hesitancy among college students.  She and her colleagues have conducted longitudinal studies of acculturation, cultural stress, and substance use among Hispanic adolescents, highlighting the role of discrimination in health-risk behaviors.  Her research also has examined cultural influences on tobacco use among American Indian adolescents, Chinese adolescents, and African American adults and neighborhood influences on adolescent cannabis use.  She has collaborated on the design and evaluation of fotonovelas and telenovelas about secondhand smoke exposure in multiunit housing; diabetes; asthma; immunization; and kidney transplantation.  She is a Project Leader in the USC Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (TCORS), where she studies diffusion of messages about emerging tobacco products to vulnerable populations through social media and leads the Population Core, which conducts annual surveys of three longitudinal cohorts of adolescents and young adults.  She is a Program Leader of the Cancer Control program at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of the Ph.D. program in Population and Public Health Sciences / Health Behavior Research.  She teaches predoctoral courses in research methods and grantwriting.  

Jessica Barrington-Trimis, PhD, MS, MA
Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Dr. Barrington-Trimis is an epidemiologist and Assistant Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California. She directs the USC Epidemiology of Substance Use Research Group and is a faculty member in the USC Institute for Addiction Science and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Barrington-Trimis’ research focuses on investigation of the rapidly changing tobacco and alternative tobacco landscape. Her work aims to identify intra-individual psychological, behavioral, and social processes associated with nicotine use in adolescence and early adulthood, and to elucidate the behavioral consequences (e.g., transition to more harmful patterns of substance use) and physiological consequences (e.g., adverse respiratory health effects of e-cigarette use) of varying patterns of nicotine product use in adolescence, with the goal of informing regulatory efforts to protect adolescents and young adults.

Jimi Huh, PhD
Associate Professor of Research Population and Public Health Sciences

Dr.Jimi Huh has joined the University of Southern California in 2011. She has a background in psychology and epidemiology, with specific interests in the topics of health disparities, acculturation and immigrant health. Since joining IPR, she has expanded her research to include developmental aspects of various health behaviors and has acquired various analytic skills, with special emphasis on multilevel modeling, mixture growth curve modeling, piecewise growth curve model, latent class analysis and latent transition analysis. Her past project, funded by Tobacco Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) examines cultural influences on tobacco use and environmental exposure to smoking among Korean American emerging adults (KAEA), using mixed methods. Her recent work also includes applying innovative statistical models pertinent to Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data such as mixed-effects location scale model and time-varying effect models. Her current project assesses ecological contexts of smoking among KAEA using mobile device. She plans to develop a culturally-tailored ecological momentary intervention to curb smoking among KAEA.

Rob McConnell, MD
Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences

Dr. Rob McConnell is a physician and environmental epidemiologist, and Professor of Preventive Medicine. He directs the NIH/Environmental Protection Agency-supported Southern California Children’s Environmental Health Center. He has studied the effects of air pollution on children’s health, including the development of asthma and lung function deficits, and early markers for cardiovascular disease. Dr. McConnell has investigated susceptibility to the effects of environmental exposures conferred by psychosocial stress and social factors, exercise, genetics and co-exposures associated with housing conditions. He has interest, in addition, in the development of methods for estimating the burden of disease associated with near-roadway air pollution and for assessing exposure in environmental epidemiology. Currently funded research is focused on environmental determinants of autism and of obesity and its metabolic consequences in children; on respiratory hazards of e-cigarette use; and on the determinants of tobacco product use as a project director in the USC Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science. He co-directs the NIEHS T32 training program in environmental genomics and the Career Development Program of the NIEHS-supported Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center. Prior to coming to USC, he directed a World Health Organization regional environmental health center for Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. McConnell is a member of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Particulate Matter Panel. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Ryan Lee, MPH
Project Manager

Ryan Lee, MPH is a Project Manager for the University of Southern California, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences. He has over five years of experience successfully managing over 10 federal, state, and foundation funded research and evaluation studies that focus on stress and acculturation, mental health, substance use prevention and tobacco control, infectious disease prevention, and addressing health disparities. He currently manages two National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research projects that focus on substance use prevention among communities of color. In his free time, Ryan enjoys cooking, cycling, and playing tennis.

Sandy Andres
Research Coordinator I

Sandy graduated from the University of Southern California in 2021 with a B.S in Biological Science and M.S in Global Medicine. As a bilingual researcher, Sandy has worked on several observational studies in aging, menopause, shared decision making, children with bronchiolitis, and clinical trials for patients with spinal cord injury, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. Sandy is committed to advancing patient health and wellbeing through research. As a future physician-scientist, Sandy aspires to deliver affordable and cultural humility care to underserved communities. During her free time, you will catch Sandy walking her cat, going on hikes, doing yoga or re-watching Grey’s Anatomy.

Ashley Jane Pagador
Project Assistant

 Ashley Pagador graduated in 2024 from the University of California, Irvine, with a B.A. in Psychological Science. As an aspiring clinical psychologist, Ashley has conducted extensive research on mental health, digital interventions, and health disparities. She worked on One Mind PsyberGuide, evaluating the credibility and effectiveness of mental health apps. Ashley’s research interests focus on digital interventions, particularly improving mental health outcomes for marginalized groups. She has worked closely with Asian-American college students to study the unique challenges they face in accessing mental health resources, with a commitment to developing culturally responsive interventions that bridge these gaps. In her free time, Ashley enjoys reading manga and trying new food with friends

Monica Pattarroyo
Project Specialist- Administrative

Monica Pattarroyo graduated from California State University, Los Angeles in 2007 with her B.A. in Sociology. That same year, she joined the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California as a Project Assistant. She offered support in coordinating and administering data collection in a classroom setting for various federal and state funded research projects addressing drug and tobacco use amongst at risk youth from various continuation schools in Southern California. Currently as a Project Specialist, Monica continues to provide research and additional administrative support on multiple concurrent grant funded investigations in health promotion and substance prevention research. During her free time, Monica enjoys traveling, photography and live music.

Erin Barth
MPH student

Erin graduated with a B.S. in Global Health from the University of Southern California in 2023. As an undergraduate, she assisted with tobacco control research and acted as the Advocacy Lead in Partners in Health Engage at USC, a national student-led organization, where she led efforts to appeal to Congress for global health legislation. She is currently a second-year MPH candidate concentrating in Global Health. Following graduation, she intends to go into global health equity work in research and advocacy. In her free time, Erin enjoys hiking and playing with her dog, reading, and exploring LA’s food scene.