Role: Professor

Trained in both life-course and environmental epidemiology, I have worked across the globe investigating and addressing systems and structures that contribute to positive and negative health outcomes. I have done extensive work globally on health systems and quality of care, especially in the field of maternal and child health. My work in Hawaiʻi, and globally, has involved close collaborations with governmental agencies, health service providers, and community-based organizations. I am particularly interested in the health effects of pivotal reproductive health milestones, in both men and women, across the life course. I have investigated age at first birth, lifetime childbirths, age and type of menopause and their associations with indicators of disablement. I also work in environmental health, especially related to marine pollution, food security, and envenomation. My work in environmental health has brought me to the Canadian Arctic, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Bermuda, Republic of the Philippines, and Colombia. I have active projects in Hawaiʻi on Oceans and Human Health and the 2021 Red Hill Jet Fuel spill. I am the Scientific Director of the Thompson School Registry Hub, which provides technical assistance to the Red Hill Independent Registry. 

Role: Associate Professor

Dr. Riley holds a joint appointment with Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Health at the Department of Public Health Sciences and Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge. Dr. Riley’s research interest is on indigenous conceptions of wellbeing as well as policies related to indigenous social determinants of health. Specifically, she is interested in the impact of the criminal justice system on indigenous people vis-à-vis traditional indigenous restorative and the impact of self-determination on indigenous wellbeing.

Role: Investigator

My research aims to understand how social-ecological resilience varies in coastal communities in Fiji across gradients of environmental, social, and economic conditions by addressing the following overarching questions: 1) What are drivers that link human communities to the coral reefs on which they depend, how are drivers linked, and how are drivers affected by external factors, including markets?, 2) What is the role of traditional ecological knowledge in enhancing resilience and adaptive capacity, 3) How do fishing practices (e.g., gear types and target species) vary across a gradient of market integration and what are the implications for coral reef ecological resilience?, and 4) How do intra-village sharing networks of fish and other natural resources vary across a gradient of market integration. To address these questions, I work in coastal villages across Fiji, using a mixed method approach. A range of qualitative and quantitative methods are being used for analysis, including structural equation models and social network analysis.