Alicia Chung, EdD, MPH

I am an Assistant Professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. My research interests include health promotion of sleep, diet and play behaviors that reduce obesity risk in families of color to narrow the health disparities gap. I am a faculty member in the Center for Early Childhood Health and Development (CEHD), under the mentorship of Laurie Brotman, PhD (CEHD, Director), in the Department of Population Health.  

My research interests include the utility of digital technology tools, such as social media, mobile apps and wearables, to engage hard to reach populations in health behavior change. I have developed and lead several pilot initiatives that promote sleep, diet and physical activity via e-health cartoons and m-health mobile devices in the parent-child dyad family unit. In my 2023 K01HL169419-01 award titled, Behavioral Sleep Interventions Among Black Families with Preschool-Aged Children, I apply mixed methods approaches to center the lived experiences of Black caregivers to tailor a digital m-health, evidence-based solution to support sleep health in children.  I use implementation science for digital adaptation of evidence-based sleep solutions, as well as human-centered design to develop solutions that reflect the preferences of the user and are relevant to their needs.

I also utilize community-engaged methods to reach communities of color in research via local partnerships and national social media platforms. Community-engaged methods were applied in the development of a culturally tailored website engaging Blacks in research as part of my post-doctoral T32 fellowship at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. I have also employed these skills in local early childhood initiatives in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and as the Faculty Scientific Liaison Lead for Community Engagement for the national RECOVER Long-Covid study. 

In addition to my K01 early career awarded funded by the National Institute of Health, I have also received funding from the National Science Foundation to understand the commercial potential of digital m-health solutions to support healthy lifestyle behavior change.  My research collaborations include co-I on several NIH grants that aim to address health disparities in communities of color. I am also an alumna of the Program to Increase Diversity in Behavioral Medicine and Sleep Disorders Research (PRIDE) program at NYU Langone’s Center for Healthful Behavior Change, where I completed my post-doctoral studies in 2019.