Elizabeth Ozer, PhD

Elizabeth Ozer is Professor of Pediatrics & Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Equity, Office of Diversity and Outreach, at the University of California, SF (UCSF). She also serves as Director of Fellows Research Training in Adolescent & Young Adult Medicine. Dr. Ozer is a psychologist whose research has focused primarily on the health of adolescents, young adults, and women. She has served as either Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator of multiple U.S. federally funded grants focused on decreasing adolescent risky behavior through improving the care provided by the health care system and the primary care provider. This research has tested models for increasing the screening and counseling of adolescents in primary care as well as evaluated the effect of provider screening and counseling on adolescent behavior across multiple health risk areas. Recent Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and National Science Foundation funded research has explored ways that technology can be incorporated into successful models of prevention for teenagers, with a current transdisciplinary collaboration with computer scientists to design, implement, and investigate a self-adaptive personalized behavior change system for adolescent preventive health (with a focus on reducing adolescent alcohol use).

In addition to intervention research, Dr. Ozer and colleagues have examined ethnic/racial disparities in the delivery of preventive services, rates of screening for depression in primary care, and trends in depression, nutrition, and physical activity screening. Extending beyond the adolescent age-group, recent work has emphasized young adult preventive health care. Dr. Ozer is currently PI of a Maternal & Child Health (MCHB) funded Adolescent/Young Adult Health Network with a focus on developing a national transdisciplinary research agenda for adolescent and young adult health and to translate research into practice.

Dr. Ozer is Chair of the University of California System-Wide Committee on the Status of Women; and a member of the UCSF Advisory Committee on the Status of Women and the Campus Council on Faculty Life. In 2007, she served as a visiting professor at the University of Melbourne.
Education
2018 - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California
PhD, 1992 - Counseling and Health Psychology, Stanford University
MA, 1988 - Psychology, Stanford University
BA, 1982 - Psychology, University of Michigan
Websites
  1. Sinha A, Rowe J, Ozer E. Narrative Play-Promoting Adolescent Health With Interactive Games. JAMA 2024. PMID: 38602666


  2. Giovanelli A, Rowe J, Taylor M, Berna M, Tebb KP, Penilla C, Pugatch M, Lester J, Ozer EM. Supporting Adolescent Engagement with Artificial Intelligence-Driven Digital Health Behavior Change Interventions. Journal of medical Internet research 2023. PMID: 37223987


  3. Ozer EM. Albert Bandura (1925-2021). 2022. PMID: 35238591


  4. Giovanelli A, Ozer EJ, Adams SH, Park MJ, Ozer EM. Adolescent Technology-use Rules and Sleep in a Large Representative Sample. 2022. PMID: 34991931





  5. Vance SR, Dentoni-Lasofsky B, Ozer E, Deutsch MB, Meyers MJ, Buckelew SM. Using Standardized Patients to Augment Communication Skills and Self-Efficacy in Caring for Transgender Youth. Academic pediatrics 2021. PMID: 34022426


  6. Pfaff N, DaSilva A, Ozer E, Vemula Kaiser S. Adolescent Risk Behavior Screening and Interventions in Hospital Settings: A Scoping Review. Pediatrics 2021. PMID: 33785635


  7. Tebb KP, Rodriguez F, Pollack LM, Adams S, Rico R, Renteria R, Trieu SL, Hwang L, Brindis CD, Ozer E, Puffer M. Improving contraceptive use among Latina adolescents: A cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating an mHealth application, Health-E You/Salud iTu. Contraception 2021. PMID: 33744300







  8. Vance SR, Buckelew SM, Dentoni-Lasofsky B, Ozer E, Deutsch MB, Meyers M. A Pediatric Transgender Medicine Curriculum for Multidisciplinary Trainees. MedEdPORTAL : the journal of teaching and learning resources 2020. PMID: 32352033




  9. Vance SR, Lasofsky B, Ozer E, Buckelew SM. Teaching paediatric transgender care. The clinical teacher 2018. PMID: 29573566






  10. Frasquilho D, Ozer EJ, Ozer EM, Branquinho C, Camacho I, Reis M, Tomé G, Santos T, Gomes P, Cruz J, Ramiro L, Gaspar T, Simões C, Piatt AA, Holsen I, Gaspar de Matos M. Dream Teens: Adolescents-Led Participatory Project in Portugal in the Context of the Economic Recession. Health promotion practice 2016. PMID: 27466268



  11. Sanci L, Chondros P, Sawyer S, Pirkis J, Ozer E, Hegarty K, Yang F, Grabsch B, Shiell A, Cahill H, Ambresin AE, Patterson E, Patton G. Responding to Young People's Health Risks in Primary Care: A Cluster Randomised Trial of Training Clinicians in Screening and Motivational Interviewing. PloS one 2015. PMID: 26422235



  12. Sadeh N, Londahl-Shaller EA, Piatigorsky A, Fordwood S, Stuart BK, McNiel DE, Klonsky ED, Ozer EM, Yaeger AM. Functions of non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents and young adults with Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms. Psychiatry research 2014. PMID: 24594204





  13. Viner RM, Ozer EM, Denny S, Marmot M, Resnick M, Fatusi A, Currie C. Adolescence and the social determinants of health. Lancet (London, England) 2012. PMID: 22538179



  14. Jasik CB, Adams SH, Irwin CE, Ozer E. The association of BMI status with adolescent preventive screening. Pediatrics 2011. PMID: 21768313


  15. Ozer EM, Adams SH, Orrell-Valente JK, Wibbelsman CJ, Lustig JL, Millstein SG, Garber AK, Irwin CE. Does delivering preventive services in primary care reduce adolescent risky behavior? The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine 2011. PMID: 22018561






  16. Ozer EM, Adams SH, Lustig JL, Gee S, Garber AK, Gardner LR, Rehbein M, Addison L, Irwin CE. Increasing the screening and counseling of adolescents for risky health behaviors: a primary care intervention. Pediatrics 2005. PMID: 15805371




  17. Ozer EM, Adams SH, Lustig JL, Millstein SG, Camfield K, El-Diwany S, Volpe S, Irwin CE. Can it be done? Implementing adolescent clinical preventive services. Health services research 2001. PMID: 16148966


  18. Lustig JL, Ozer EM, Adams SH, Wibbelsman CJ, Fuster CD, Bonar RW, Irwin CE. Improving the delivery of adolescent clinical preventive services through skills-based training. Pediatrics 2001. PMID: 11331693


  19. Halpern-Felsher BL, Ozer EM, Millstein SG, Wibbelsman CJ, Fuster CD, Elster AB, Irwin CE. Preventive services in a health maintenance organization: how well do pediatricians screen and educate adolescent patients? Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine 2000. PMID: 10665605