PhuongThao D. Le, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow, College of Global Public Health, New York University

Dr. Le’s research focuses on the health consequences of human trafficking and sexual trauma,with the goal of strengthening the policy responses to protect women from sexual violence and improving the healthcare response to promote health and healing among the survivors. She has conducted a mixed-methods study among returned survivors of human trafficking in Vietnam, in which she collaborated with a non-governmental organization to develop scientifically rigorous and culturally appropriate measures of physical and mental health in community-based and low-resource settings, and to establish strong relationships with governmental entities and local stakeholders to implement study recruitment and data collection procedures. Dr. Le has also engaged in multiple research projects that address health disparities among diverse and underserved populations in the U.S.. She served as the Environmental Study Coordinator in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Library HealthLink Project, a mixed-methods project that utilized local libraries and community centers to increase cancer awareness and prevention. At UCLA/RAND, she coordinated the community advisory board activities in overseeing a 5-year NIH-funded mixed-methods study on paid family leave among low-income clients.  Dr. Le obtained a B.S. in applied mathematics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), a Master of Public Health from Columbia University School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy & Management, with a focus on effectiveness and outcomes research, and her PhD from UCLA School of Public Health in Community Health Sciences.