Ayae Yamamoto, MSc, BA

Project Title/Research Interests: Healthcare Use and Outcomes of Homeless Patients: Multi-State Population-Based Analyses

Mentor:
Jack Needleman, PhD

Background:
Ms. Yamamoto obtained her bachelor’s degree in integrative biology from UC Berkeley in 2009 and her Master of Science degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2012, with certifications in maternal and child health and healthcare policy challenge. She became drawn to health services/health policy research and decided to pursue her doctorate in this field rather than epidemiology because she was interested in having a more direct impact. Ms. Yamamoto currently works as an analytical programmer with Southern California Permanente Medical Group in the Research and Evaluation division. She provides programming analytics for large research projects involving patient healthcare data across the Southern CA region and is the lead analytics for the construction of a PCORI-funded multi-center obesity cohort involving 9 different sites.  For her graduate studies, Ms. Yamamoto is especially interested in policies that impact underserved women and children and evaluating those that promote disparities. For example, she is interested in investigating the effects of the Affordable Care Act on access to prenatal care and racial/ethnic disparities in access to healthcare and health outcomes.