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Meet our new faculty: Lesley Park

  • Published
Lesley Park, MPH, PhD
Leslie Park headshot photo
  • Discipline: Epidemiology
  • Research interests: HIV and cancer epidemiology (cancer prevention for people with long-term chronic infections, like HIV and hepatitis C), observational cohorts
  • Hometown: Fairfax, Virginia
  • Current city: San Francisco
  • Hobbies: Pilates (certified instructor during grad school); wine tasting; ballet; listening to BTS

Where did you live and work previously?

Prior to joining UC Berkeley School of Public Health, I was at Stanford Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology & Population Health (also living in SF, but grateful now for a much shorter commute!).

What drew you to work and teach at UC Berkeley?

The people and community. The positive energy from the staff, students, and faculty is infectious.

What are you currently working on?

I lead the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS). I am executive director and principal investigator of the VACS-HIV cohort; more about the VACS-National cohort here. This includes our P60 Center grant on Aging Well with HIV through Alcohol Research and Risk Reduction and Education (AWARE) Center.

What are you most looking forward to this academic year?

Teaching phenomenal UC Berkeley students and running the International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases (IWHOD). Our next conference will be in Dubrovnik, Croatia in March 2027 and I hope Berkeley students and colleagues will submit abstracts!

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