Nadia Lathan

The Oaklandside • 10th March 2023

This all-AAPI choreography team is challenging racist depictions of Asians in ballet

Unabashed joy takes center stage at this year’s Oakland Ballet Dancing Moons Festival, which features what may be a first for an American ballet company — a new, all-Asian American Pacific Islander choreographed program.

The main ballet, “Exquisite Corpse,” is a new piece making its premiere at the festival, which the Oakland Ballet has hosted for the past two years in collaboration with the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Co-choreographed by Phil Chan, Seyong Kim, and Elaine Kudo, the ballet me

UC Berkeley Public Health • 7th March 2023

California pharmacists face barriers to offer HIV medications

California Senate Bill 159 authorized pharmacists to prescribe HIV pre-exposure (PrEP) and post-exposure (PEP) medications without an outside provider’s prescription in order to increase access to HIV preventative medications. However, a new study led by UC Berkeley School of Public Health Epidemiology Professor Sandra McCoy found that just 11% of California pharmacists surveyed had prescribed the medications since the bill’s introduction nearly three years ago.

The study, done as part of the C

UC Berkeley Public Health • 24th February 2023

Historic redlining negatively impacts maternal health almost a century on

New research shows that Black and Hispanic women who live in historically redlined neighborhoods are at a greater risk of Severe maternal morbidity (SMM)—a condition that includes multitude of life-threatening pregnancy complications occurring before or after delivery—than other ethnic and racial groups

A study—led by UC Berkeley School of Public Health PhD candidate Xing Gao and published in Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology—found that women in areas categorized as “hazardous” by the Home

The Oaklandside • 10th February 2023

Queer-friendly bike ride works to boost Oakland coffee shops

Anne Sauer, a small-business consultant based in Alameda, inadvertently assembled a devoted group of cafe goers after she asked a few friends to cycle with her to West Oakland’s Kilovolt Coffee in spring 2021. She had just moved to the East Bay from San Francisco and was searching for ways to replicate the accepting, queer-friendly bike community she had enjoyed in the city. What initially began as an early-bird motivator has, according to Sauer, turned into an “anti-depression ride” and colorfu

Oakland North • 28th January 2023

City sued in death of bystander during police chase

The family of Lolomania Soakai is suing the Oakland Police Department, claiming that an unauthorized police chase led to the death of the 27-year-old known as “Lolo” last summer.

The Soakai family, represented by Adenté Pointer and Patrick Buelna, held a news conference Thursday, a day after the civil rights lawsuit was filed in federal court, to announce that they’re seeking to hold OPD responsible for Soakai’s death. Soakai’s mother, Lavina Soakai, who attended with several family members, cr

Local News Matters • 10th January 2023

Telegraph for People: Activist group's effort to ban cars on Berkeley street gains traction

BRANDON YUNG WAS 16 years old when he realized that most American cities weren’t designed with people in mind. Without a car to go from place to place, the urban sprawl of his south Pasadena neighborhood outside Los Angeles left him feeling isolated.

Yung would spend the next few years attending activist meetings in Downtown LA and absorbed in online urbanist communities before enrolling at UC Berkeley in 2018. Facebook groups such as New Urbanist Memes for Transit Oriented Teens helped mitigat

Richmond Pulse | Youth-led community news for Richmond CA • 19th December 2022

Rich City Rides to Loan Free E-Bikes | Richmond Pulse

People biked across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on Nov. 20 in a Rich City Sunday Wellness Ride.

Not all weight loss journeys turn into a decade-long pastime, but Maria Weatherborne’s did. A simple five-kilometer ride in Frisco, Texas, 12 years ago unearthed a passion for cycling she didn’t foresee. Thousands of miles ridden and a new home in Richmond later, Weatherborne is a well-known figure in the East Bay cycling community and spends much of her time volunteering for the nonprofit Rich Ci

Richmond Confidential • 18th November 2022

Electric bike borrowing program coming to Richmond

Richmond residents may soon be able to rent electric bikes with ease, after the city received a $3 million grant from the California Strategic Growth Council last month to implement its E-bike Lending Library Program.

Heralded by local bicycle cooperative and nonprofit Rich City Rides, a co-applicant for the grant, the project intends to make cycling more accessible for many would-be riders inhibited by physical ability or other barriers that make riding traditional bikes difficult.

“We wanted

UC Berkeley Public Health • 12th December 2022

Untreated mental illness leads to worse outcomes for minorities

Racial and ethnic minorities with untreated mental illnesses are more likely to have experienced poverty, have been unemployed, and/or experienced incarceration during the past year, according to a paper published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. The paper’s authors—led by Lonnie R. Snowden, UC Berkeley School of Public Health professor of health policy and management—found that African Americans with untreated mental illness were particularly vulnerable compared to white,

UC Berkeley Public Health • 26th October 2022

Leaks from gas stoves can create toxic levels of hazardous air pollutants

Leaks from gas stoves can create toxic levels of hazardous air pollutants

Low-level gas leaks from kitchen stoves, even when off, can create hazardous levels of benzene concentrations, researchers found in a study published in Environmental Science & Technology. The natural gas used to power millions of California homes contained benzene concentrations up to seven times higher than the state’s recommended exposure limit.

The report, co-authored by UC Berkeley School of Public Health Associate

UC Berkeley Public Health • 19th October 2022

Dr. Mahasin Mujahid appointed as new head of Division of Epidemiology

Dr. Mahasin Mujahid appointed as new head of Division of Epidemiology

Distinguished social epidemiologist, researcher, and Associate Professor Mahasin Mujahid, MS, PhD, FAHA is the new head of the Division of Epidemiology at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. A long-time faculty member and the Lillian E.I. and Dudley J. Aldous Chair in the School of Public Health, Professor Mujahid taught for 13 years in the Division before becoming the first Black woman to helm it.

Mujahid is no strange

UC Berkeley Public Health • 1st December 2022

Berkeley Public Health undergrad finds renewed purpose in Mysore, India

Newfound independence, research experience, and a fresh perspective. These lessons weren’t necessarily on UC Berkeley student Samhita Bhat’s to-do list before she left for a summer 2022 internship in India. And yet, when her time was up at Public Health Research Institute of India (PHRII), Bhat—a fourth-year undergrad majoring in molecular & cell biology and public health— took home a series of revelations, along with a renewed commitment to a career in public health.

UC Berkeley Public Health • 10th October 2022

Review finds inconclusive evidence that Medicaid expansion reduced African American–white healthcare disparities

An August 2022 scoping review by lead author Lonnie Snowden, professor of Health Policy and Management at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, examined whether or not the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion reduced African American–white disparities in access to healthcare, coverage, and overall health outcomes.

Longstanding inequalities exist between Black and white Americans in the United States across several health indicators, from life expectancy to heart disease. The Affordab

UC Berkeley Public Health • 6th September 2022

UC Berkeley CHOIR receives California Department of Health Care Services grant to examine Medi-Cal health equity measures

The Center for Healthcare Organization and Innovation Research (CHOIR) at UC Berkeley School of Public Health has been awarded a two-year $430,000 grant by the California Department of Healthcare Services (DHCS). The grant will allow CHOIR researchers to use a series of surveys and interviews to study the effectiveness of the Medical Interpreter Pilot Program (MIPP) on access to healthcare among Medi-Cal recipients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP).

The project is led by Hector Rodriquez,