Elissa Gomez, MPH

Pronouns: she, her, ella

Doctoral Student
SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health
Process Evaluation Coordinator, Conmigo

Location
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Mail Code
[1234]
Fax
[619-594-####]

Areas of Research

Eating Behaviors, Physical Activity, Chronic Health Conditions, Adolescent Health, Health Disparities

Bio

Elissa Gomez is a first-year doctoral student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. She received her Bachelor’s in Public Health with a Concentration in Community Sciences from UC San Diego.

During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a research assistant to evaluate the implementation of a psychosocial program at the Veterans Affairs intended to increase patient-provider collaboration and patient autonomy for Veterans with serious mental illness.

Interested in further building her skills in program planning, research, and evaluation to develop public health interventions, she pursued her Master’s in Public Health at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Throughout her MPH, she took on courses and roles with institutions such as the California Department of Public Health that allowed her to explore the influence of family figures on different child and adolescent outcomes, including nutrition, physical activity, adverse childhood experiences, and educational learning.

She is interested in continuing this work by supporting the REACH Lab’s Conmigo project and researching the mechanisms through which community-based, family-oriented interventions can increase pre-adolescent Latina’s physical activity as a pathway to reducing chronic health disparities. She is also a proud trainee of SDSU’s ALIADOS T32 Program, where she is being supported by fellow scholars and investigators to broaden her skills and knowledge about Latino health and multi-level intervention research.

Mentors

Elva Arredondo, Ph.D.
Heather A. Pines, Ph.D.

Details

Education
  1. B.S. Public Health w/ Concentration in Community Health Sciences
    UC San Diego, 2023
  2. MPH Community Health Sciences
    UCLA, 2025
Publications
  1. Treichler, E., Gomez, E., McBride, L., Seaton, S., Jain, J., & Rabin, B. (2023). Finding the Fit-Fidelity Balance in Mental Health Care Delivery: Assessing a Session-by-Session Intervention Personalization Strategy for Veterans with Psychosis. Poster presented at the 2023 NIH/Academy Health Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Washington, DC.
  2. McBride, L., Gomez, E., Sosa, E., Salyers, M., & Treichler, E. (2023). Using a Novel Method to Measure Collaboration in Usual Care between Veterans with SMI and their Clinicians. Poster presented at the 2023 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Conference, Seattle, WA.
  3. McBride, L., Gomez, E., Sosa, E., Bangal, J., Salyers, M., Spaulding, W., & Treichler, E. (2023). Evaluating Preliminary Effectiveness and Convergence of Observational and Self-Report Measures of a Skills-Based Intervention for Veterans with Psychosis. Poster presented at the 2023 Society for Research in Psychopathology Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO.
  4. Bangal, J., McBride, L., Jain, J. N., Gomez, E., Rabin, B., Treichler, E. B. H. (2023). Feasibility and preliminary outcomes of collaborative decision skills training in a VA open trial. Poster presented at the 2023 Colorado Pragmatic Research in Health Conference. Denver, CO.
  5. Treichler, E.B.H., Sosa, E., McBride, L., Jain, J., Gomez, E., Seaton, S., Yu, K., & Rabin, B. (2022). How do Adaptations Change from Pre-Implementation to Implementation Phases? An Example from a Mixed Methods, Iterative, Community-Engaged Adaptation of Collaborative Decision Skills Training For Veterans With Psychosis. Poster presented at the 2022 NIH/Academy Health Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Washington, DC.
  6. Bernardino B,* Cordeiro H,* Gomez E,* Hernandez F,* Shimamoto S,* Binkin N.* (2023).The Gender Gap: Effects of Campus Safety and Security on Academic Experience and Well-being. Poster presented at the San Diego Epidemiology Research Exchange Conference in San Diego, CA.
  7. Gomez, E.,* McBride, L.,* Hagans, W., Hoxey, A., Seaton, S., Jain, J., & Treichler, E. (2022). Effectiveness of Novel Recruiting Strategies and Barriers to the Recruitment of Veterans from Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups with Serious Mental Illness. Poster presented at the 2022 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Conference in New York, NY.
  8. Treichler E, Hoxey A, Hagans W, Sosa E, McBride L, Gomez E, Quan C, Oluwoye O, Rabin B. (2022). VA Mental Health Care and Treatment Decision-Making: A Mixed Methods Pilot among Veterans of Color with Serious Mental Illness. Talk given at the Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center’s Discussion on the Social Determinants of Health in remote format.
  9. Treichler, E.B.H., Sosa, E., Yu, K., Abasta, J., Seaton, S., Gomez. E., Jain, J., McBride, L., & Rabin, B. (2022). Mixed Methods, Iterative, Stakeholder-Engaged Adaptation of Collaborative Decision Skills Training for Veterans with Psychosis: A Progress Report. Talk given at the 2022 Society for Implementation Research Collaboration in San Diego, CA.
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Awards & Honors
  1. University Graduate Fellowship, College of Graduate Studies, San Diego State University, 2025
  2. Dean’s Leadership Award, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA, 2023-2025
  3. Independent Study in Public Health Research Award, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, UC San Diego, 2023
  4. Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award in Public Health, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, UC San Diego, 2023
  5. Undergraduate Commencement Speaker, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, UC San Diego, 2023
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Fun Facts
  1. Elissa is the proud owner of a 5-year-old blue tabby cat named MewTwo (MT for short), which she adopted from the San Diego Humane Society in 2022!
  2. As a vegan, Elissa loves to cook and bake plant-based recipes! Her all-time favorite dessert to make for birthdays is a whole-wheat carrot cake with cashew cream cheese frosting!