Susan Cochran

2022-23 Academic Senate Chair

Susan Cochran is Professor of Epidemiology in the Fielding School of Public Health at UC Los Angeles and Professor of Statistics in the UCLA College of Letters and Science.  She has been on the faculty since 1996. She received her A.B. in Anthropology from UCLA, her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Loyola Marymount University, her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA and later her M.S. in Epidemiology from UCLA with support from a National Institute of Mental Health Scientist Development Award. 

Her scholarly interests focus on the psychosocial determinants of health and health-related behaviors, and the role of social stigma and discrimination in health care access, health behaviors, mental health, and health outcomes. With funding from NIH over the years, she has investigated patterns of sexual risk taking related to HIV infection control, the burden of mental health and substance use disorders among sexual and racial/ethnic minorities, and most recently the use of machine learning methods to identify obscured features in administrative health data related to violent death. She teaches courses in the areas of survey sampling and scientific communication. She is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. Over the years, she has received several awards for her research and contributions to the University including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Contribution to Research in Public Policy Award and the UCLA Chancellor’s Award for Special Contributions to a Fair and Open Academic Environment.

Professor Cochran’s record of Senate service includes chairing the UCLA Senate division in 2016-17, the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee in 2005-2006, and the Committee on Data, Information Technology, and Privacy in 2020-2021. At UCLA, she also served on the Undergraduate Council from 2004 to 2006; the Council on Planning and Budget from 2009 to 2013; Graduate Council from 2013 to 2015; the Graduate Council Executive Committee in 2014-2015; and the Committee on Degree Programs in 2014-2015.

In addition to the Academic Council, her systemwide service includes the University Committee on Academic Computing and Communications, where she served as vice chair in 2020-2021; the UC Working Group on RIMS (Research Information Management Systems) in 2019-2021; the Cyber-Risk Working Group in 2019-2020; and Cyber-Risk Governance Committee in 2020-2021.