OUR PEOPLE
Rita Hamad, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Medicine
3333 California Street, #73M
San Francisco, CA 94118
Education and Training
University of California San Francisco, MD - Medicine
University of California San Francisco, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training
University of California Berkeley, MPH, MS - Health & Medical Sciences
UCSF - Contra Costa Family Medicine Residency, Family Medicine
Stanford University, PhD - Epidemiology
Harvard University, AB - Chemistry
Awards and Honors
Hellman Fellowship, UCSF, 2018-2020
Irene Perstein Award, UCSF, 2018-2021
James C. Puffer, M.D./American Board of Family Medicine Fellowship, National Academy of Medicine, 2020-2022
Outstanding Impact in Health & Social Justice Alumni Award, UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, 2022
Overview
In July 2023, Dr. Rita Hamad transitioned to the role of Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health. She was formerly an Associate Professor in the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Family & Community Medicine at UCSF. She is a social epidemiologist and family physician, and the Director of the Social Policies for Health Equity Research Center (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/sphere/).
Dr. Hamad's research focuses on the pathways linking social factors like poverty and education with racial and socioeconomic disparities in health across the life course. In particular, she studies the health effects of social and economic policies using interdisciplinary quasi-experimental methods to generate actionable evidence to inform policymaking. She was the Associate Director of the UCSF Center for Health Equity. She was also a member of the steering committee of the UCSF Population Health Data Initiative, serving as the Faculty Lead for the development of data infrastructure to advance population health research on campus.
Outside of her academic role, Dr. Hamad is the co-Chair of the Communications Committee of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science and serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Health Affairs Scholar. In 2020-2022, she was also a Fellow at the National Academy of Medicine. She has provided consultation to federal and state legislators on the design of poverty alleviation policies. Dr. Hamad mentors trainees at all levels in population health and health equity research, and lectures in several courses about the effects of social policies on health inequities. She saw patients for 10 years in safety net clinics throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, although she is no longer a practicing physician.
Dr. Hamad's research focuses on the pathways linking social factors like poverty and education with racial and socioeconomic disparities in health across the life course. In particular, she studies the health effects of social and economic policies using interdisciplinary quasi-experimental methods to generate actionable evidence to inform policymaking. She was the Associate Director of the UCSF Center for Health Equity. She was also a member of the steering committee of the UCSF Population Health Data Initiative, serving as the Faculty Lead for the development of data infrastructure to advance population health research on campus.
Outside of her academic role, Dr. Hamad is the co-Chair of the Communications Committee of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science and serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Health Affairs Scholar. In 2020-2022, she was also a Fellow at the National Academy of Medicine. She has provided consultation to federal and state legislators on the design of poverty alleviation policies. Dr. Hamad mentors trainees at all levels in population health and health equity research, and lectures in several courses about the effects of social policies on health inequities. She saw patients for 10 years in safety net clinics throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, although she is no longer a practicing physician.