Dr. irene yen, PhD, MPH is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts (SSHA) Public Health Department since January 2018. She is a social and structural epidemiologist with research expertise in survey design and development and qualitative research methods. Her research focuses on the social and structural determinants of health with emphasis on how neighborhood environment influences health behaviors and health status and the intersections of race/ethnicity and social class.

She is the Principal Investigator of the Housing, Opportunity, and Place (HOPe) Lab. The HOPe Lab is dedicated to examining social factors such as housing structural conditions or the built environment and their relation to health in the Central Valley.