CEHD Co-Director, Dr. Antronette (Toni) Yancey

Photo of Antronette Yancey, MD, MPH

Antronette K. Yancey, MD, MPH is currently a Professor in the Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, with primary research interests in chronic disease prevention and adolescent health promotion.  She returned to academia full-time in 2001 after five years in public health practice, first as Director of Public Health for the city of Richmond, VA, and, until recently, as Director of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.  Dr. Yancey has authored more than 75 scientific publications, including briefs, book chapters, health promotion videos, and among those, more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles.  She has generated more than $14 million in extramural funds, including three National Institutes of Health independent investigator (R01, R24) grants as principal investigator.  She serves on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Dr. Julie Gerberding), Institute of Medicine (IOM) Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity Committee and Health Literacy Roundtable, American Heart Association Physical Activity Sub-committee, and Board of Directors, Public Health Institute. 

 

Dr. Yancey completed her undergraduate studies in biochemistry and molecular biology at Northwestern University, her medical degree at Duke, and her preventive medicine residency/MPH at UCLA.  She is a basketball enthusiast and poet/spoken word artist published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and several newspapers.  Her book of poetry and art, a collaboration with artist Todd Berrien, An Old Soul with a Young Spirit:  Poetry in the era of desegregation recovery, was published in 1997 and sold out of its first printing.  Her spoken word music CD, a collaboration with musicians Ciro Hurtado and Kim Jordan, was released in 2001. 

 

Click here for a current Curriculum Vitae.

 

Some of her current projects include:

  •  African-American Women Fight Cancer with Fitness (1996-2000), a randomized, controlled NIH-funded (R01) intervention trial; Fuel Up/Lift Off! LA / Sabor y Energia (1999-present), a LADHS-/USDA-funded community-level social marketing campaign aimed at creating organizational practice change and social support for healthier eating and active living, conducted in collaboration with Community Health Councils, Inc.'s African Americans Building a Legacy of Health demonstration project funded by the CDC REACH 2010 initiative to decrease diabetes and CVD disparities in 3 underserved areas of Los Angeles; 
  • Community Steps to Minority Youth Fitness (2000-2004), a NIH-funded R01 pilot study assigning two predominantly African-American and Latino schools to intervention and control conditions with in-school (physical education class) and after-school components to promote healthy eating and physical activity at the levels of the student, school, family, and surrounding neighborhood; 
  • Evaluation of the California Pupil Health and Nutrition Act (SB 19) (2002-present), a NIH-funded R01 study to conduct a randomized, controlled early implementation study of SB 19, which would provide meal subsidies to elementary and middle schools to support a ban on sodas and other low-nutrient density snacks, and create advisory committees to implement policies promoting healthy nutrition and physical activity; 
  • The Adventist Health Study-2, a longitudinal cohort study recruiting 35,000 Black and 75,000 White Seventh-Day Adventists to examine sociodemographic and lifestyle contributions to cancer outcomes; 
  • Joining Forces with a Key Community to Combat Obesity Disparities, a NIH-funded community-based participatory research project engaging staff of public and private (non-profit) sector health and social services agencies in identifying and pilot testing feasible and potentially effective strategies to integrate physical activity and healthy food choices into organizational routine.

Selected Presentations

1.        Health Disparities in Los Angeles - view

2.        Culture Politics and Economics of our Obesogenic Society - view

3.        Fourth Annual Symposium on CVD in Women - view

4.        Churches as Change Agents- view

5.        Physical Activity and the Pediatrician - view

6.        More CEHD presentations

Selected Publications

1. Yancey AK, Raines AM, McCarthy WJ, Gewa C, Weber M, Fielding JE. The Los Angeles Lift Off: a sociocultural environmental change intervention to increase workplace physical activity. Prev Med 2004; 38(6): 848-56.

2. Yancey AK, Lewis LB, Sloane DC, et al.: Leading by example: a local health department-community collaboration to incorporate physical activity into organizational practice. J Public Health Manag Pract 2004; 10(2): 116-23.

3. Yancey AK, Wold CM, McCarthy WJ, et al.: Physical inactivity and overweight among Los Angeles County adults. Am J Prev Med 2004; 27(2): 146-52.

4. Yancey A, Jordan A, Bradford J, Voas J, Eller TJ, Voas J, Buzzard M, Welch M, McCarthy W. Engaging high risk populations in a community-level fitness promotion program: ROCK! Richmond. Health Promotion Practice. 2003;4(2):180-188.

5. Sloane DC, Diamant AL, Lewis LB, Yancey AK, Flynn G, Nascimento LM, McCarthy WJ, Guinyard JJ, Cousineau MR, REACH Coalition. Improving the nutritional resource environment for healthy living through community-based
participatory research. J Gen Intern Med 2003; 18(7): 568-575.

6. Yancey A, Siegel J, McDaniel K. Ethnic identity, role models, risk & health behaviors in urban adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent
Medicine. 2002;156:55-61.

7. Mays V, Yancey A, Cochran S, Weber M, Fielding J. Heterogeneity of health disparities among African American, Latina/Hispanic, and Asian American women: unrecognized influences of sexual orientation. American Journal of Public Health. 2002;92:632-639.

UCLA Pub Hlth-Hlth Serv
BOX 951772, 31-235 CHS
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772
Phone: 310.206.8729
Phone 2: 310.794.9284
Fax: 310.794.1805
Email: ayancey@ucla.edu