My research focuses on understanding the role of Gs-protein coupled receptor signaling in skeletal development, with a focused interest in craniofacial fibrous dysplasia of the bone (FD) and McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS).

Dr. Shunk's primary research interests are in the imaging of atherosclerotic plaque - the substance that builds up on the inner walls of diseased blood vessels -and clinical trials of novel devices or invasive strategies to treat cardiovascular diseases. A related research goal is integration, co-registration, and co-display of multi-modality image information for assessing and treating cardiovascular disease in real time.

Dr. Covinsky’s research is focused on disability in older persons, and the goal is identifying the reasons older persons develop difficulties with basic activities of daily living, mobility, and other problems that threaten their independence. His research is also focused on understanding health outcomes in older persons who have disability and improving their quality of life.

Krista Harrison, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatrics and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS). Her research aims to mitigate suffering by improving models of care & policies for older adults living with, dying from, and grieving neurodegenerative diseases and other serious illnesses. She uses quantitative data to examine population-level needs and generates qualitative and mixed-methods data to inform the improvement of palliative and end-of-life care for people with dementia and care partners, particularly those who live in home and community settings.

Dr. Harrison completed her PhD in health policy and public health ethics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; postdoctoral training in aging research and implementation science at UCSF, and an Atlantic Fellowship for Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute. Before joining UCSF, Dr. Harrison was a leader within a large nonprofit community-based hospice and palliative care organization. Dr. Harrison's currently serves as co-lead of a core within the Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Center that advises scholars on primary data collection in populations of older adults.

Dr. Kristen Nishimi is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist. She completed an MPH at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, a PhD in Population Health Sciences at Harvard University, and a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSF and the SFVAHCS. Her research examines relationships between trauma, mental, and physical health across the lifecourse. She applies advanced epidemiological methods to observational and clinical data, to identify relationships between adversity and trauma exposure across the life course, with mental, behavioral, and physical health endpoints. Her research seeks to understand the pathways and mechanisms by which trauma, mental, and physical health intertwine, particularly via impacts on systemic inflammation and immune system functioning. Dr. Nishimi is also interested in an assets-based perspective in understanding psychological resilience to trauma, and its potential broad benefit to physical health and chronic disease.