Co-Directors
Previously, he served as associate dean for diversity and student affairs of the Graduate School from 2013–2019.
Dr. Aisenberg is staunchly committed to addressing inequities in the access and utilization of health and behavioral health services. His primary research interest focuses on delivery and dissemination of an innovative training and treatment program providing evidence-based and culturally tailored depression care to Latinx adults via telephone. Undergraduate students and promotoras are trained and supervised to effectively deliver this manualized treatment.
Dr. Aisenberg obtained his MSW and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Southern California. Since coming to the University of Washington in 2002, his research and teaching have been deeply informed by culture and authentic partnerships with community-based agencies serving marginalized and rural communities.
He received his M.D. and MPH degrees from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. from the RAND Graduate School in Policy Analysis. After completing a residency in primary care internal medicine at the UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital, he was recruited to the UCLA School of Medicine where he held faculty positions and co-directed the UCLA Resource Center for Minority Aging Research.
He is a past recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Minority Foundation Medical Faculty Development Award and a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award. His research focuses on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in health and the measurement of patient resorted outcomes in diverse population settings. He was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2007.
He was the 2023 recipient of the Washington State Public Health Association (WSPHA) Annual Secretary's Award and a recipient of a 2021 Washington State Medical Association Grassroots Advocate Award.
Affiliate Faculty
Using mixed methods, her research focuses on health equity and justice by examining how structural and social drivers of oral health intersect to shape service utilization and clinical outcomes for the Latino/a/e community. Morris' research also focuses on integrating social work practice into oral healthcare settings to improve delivery, policy, and patient outcomes. Her work has been supported by the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health.
Melanie Morris' social work practice has focused on the ground-up design and the hands-on delivery of social work services in dental education. She has developed and implemented social work services, curriculum, and practicum sites in didactic and clinical dental education. Morris has also played a key role in establishing a national network of social workers in dental education known as Social Work in Dentistry (SWID), which provides support and resources to foster the development or continuation of social work programs and practicum sites in dental care settings.
I pursued my medical education at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru and afterward migrated to the United States in search of further training opportunities. After few years of learning English and preparing for and passing the USMLE examinations, I began my internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University/Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. I later completed fellowship training in Cardiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
From early in my career, I knew I wanted to devote my work to serving Hispanic communities in the Pacific Northwest, whose geography and agricultural environment reminded me of my country of origin. From 2012 to 2020, I practiced cardiology in Yakima, Washington, where I learned firsthand about the health care challenges faced by migrant and farmworker communities. During the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, I moved to Seattle and joined the University of Washington Division of Cardiology. I am currently based at the Northwest campus, where I practice invasive general cardiology.
Recently, I was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor and for the past three years, I have also volunteered with the Latino Center for Health, where I have been honored to contribute to outreach and community-focused initiatives. I am excited to continue expanding my role as affiliate faculty and to strengthen my involvement in efforts that promote health equity and improve outcomes for Hispanic communities.
Staff Members
In addition to two co-directors, the Latino Center for Health has four permanent staff members and two part-time staff members supporting our research, community engagement, and operations.