Gilbert C. Gee

Gilbert C. Gee serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, where his research centers on racism and social determinants of health inequities among racial/ethnic and immigrant communities, with additional focus on stress, neighborhood environments, immigration patterns, and environmental justice.

His educational trajectory includes:

• Post Doctoral Training in Sociology from Indiana University, Bloomington
• PhD in Health Policy and Management from Johns Hopkins University
• BA in Neuroscience from Oberlin College

Dr. Gee's scholarly work fundamentally examines racism as a primary driver of health disparities, particularly among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations. He integrates life course perspectives and structural frameworks to analyze how social determinants operate across time and institutional contexts, emphasizing neighborhood effects, environmental exposures, and immigration experiences as critical pathways to health outcomes.

His recent publications (2020-2025) reveal concentrated investigation into structural racism's manifestations during the COVID-19 pandemic, methodological innovations for measuring discrimination in diverse populations, and the racialization of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Pacific Islander identities. Key thematic threads include data equity challenges, life course implications of racism, and transnational health study designs.

Major recognitions include:

• NIH Merit Award (2008) for multicultural discrimination measurement development
• Dual EPA Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards (2008) for environmental health disparity frameworks
• Paul Cornely Award (2019) from the Health Activist Dinner
• Delta Omega Award (2018) for innovative anti-racism curriculum development
• C. Doris and Toshio Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize
• Best Published Paper Award (2007) from the Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus

Dr. Gee has mentored student collaborators on award-winning curriculum initiatives like 'We Gon’ Be Alright: Addressing Racism and Anti-Black Violence as a Public Health Crisis,' while maintaining editorial leadership as former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior and service on the National Academies committee for Healthy People 2030. His research infrastructure includes the Health of Philippine Emigrants Study (HoPES) and the Multicultural Survey Methods Group that pioneered cross-cultural data collection methodologies.