Dean, Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health
Professor of Public Health
aortega2@hawaii.edu | (808) 956-6300 | Gartley Hall, Dean’s Office
Health Policy and Management
Academic Degrees
- PhD (Epidemiologic Science), University of Michigan
- MPH (Epidemiology & Biostatistics), Boston University
- BA (Economics), University of New Mexico
Research Interests
Alex Ortega is Dean and Professor in the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He is a nationally recognized health services researcher and health care policy scholar whose work focuses on health equity, access to care, and the impact of public policy on underserved populations in the United States.
Dr. Ortega has led a continuously funded research program supported by the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies for nearly three decades, totaling more than $30 million in grant funding. His research spans immigrant health, Latino health, health care access and utilization, and the effects of health policy and social determinants on population health. He has made significant contributions to health policy research on Latino populations, with studies conducted in California, Puerto Rico, New England, Hawaiʻi, and at the national level. His work has been widely published in leading journals including JAMA, Health Services Research, Health Affairs, Medical Care, among other prominent journals in public health, medicine, pediatrics, and health policy.
Prior to joining the University of Hawaiʻi, Dr. Ortega held senior academic and leadership positions at UCLA, Drexel University, and Yale University. At UCLA, he held appointments in public health and psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, directed an NIH-funded Center for Population Health and Health Disparities, and served as Associate Director of the Chicano Studies Research Center. At Drexel University, he was Director of the Center for Population Health and Community Impact.
Dr. Ortega currently serves as Senior Associate Editor for Health Services Research and holds national service roles including membership on the Independent U.S. Census Scientific Advisory Committee and the Observational Study Monitoring Board for the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
Selected Publications
Godinet MT, Lopez Mercado D, Purtle J, Stimpson JP, Ortega AN. Disparities in sexual violence among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Adolescents in Hawaiʽi. JAMA Pediatrics, DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.3165. Online ahead of print.
Purtle J, Machavariani E, Rivera-González AC, Mauri AI, Kaholokula JK, Ortega AN. Increases in suicides and overdoses during the 2023 wildfires in Maui, Hawaiʽi. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 2025;334:1019-1021. PMCID: PMC12329681. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2025.11146.
Barajas CB, Roby DH, Stimpson JP, Ponce NA, Lazalde GE, Young MEDT, Kietzman K, Bustamante AV, Rivera-González AC, Langellier BA, Eberth JM, Stehr M, Ortega AN. Public benefit avoidance and safety concerns among mixed-status Latino families in California, 2021-2022. Health Affairs, 2025;44:1307-13. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2025.00375.16.
Bustamante AV, Rivera-González AC, Martinez-Cardoso A, Barajas CB, Young ME, Ortega AN. The shifting federal and state policy landscapes for health insurance coverage of noncitizen immigrants: where are we thirty years after PRWORA? Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, in press. DOI: 10.1215/03616878-11995160
Chisolm DJ, Dugan JA, Figueroa JF, Lane-Fall MB, Roby DH, Rodriguez HP, Ortega AN. Improving health equity through healthcare systems research.Health Services Research, 2023;58(Suppl 3):289-299. PMCID: PMC10684038. DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.14192
Lopez Mercado D, Rivera-González AC, Stimpson JP, Langellier BA, Bustamante AV, Young MEDT, Ponce NA, Barajas CB, Roby DH, Ortega AN. Undocumented Latino immigrants and the Latino health paradox. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2023;65:296-306. PMCID: PMC10363195. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2023.02.010
Bustamante AV, Beltran LF, Nwadiuko J, Ortega AN. Avoiding Medicaid enrollment after the reversal of the changes in the public charge rule among Latino and Asian immigrants. Health Services Research, 2022;57(Suppl. 2):195-203. PMCID: PMC9660423. DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.14020
Ortega AN, Roby DH. Ending structural racism in the US health care system to eliminate health care inequities. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 2021;326(7):613-615. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2021.11160
Bustamante AV, Chen J, Felix L, Ortega AN. Health policy challenges posed by shifting demographics and health trends among immigrants to the United States. Health Affairs, 2021;40:1028-1037. PMCID: PMC8285051.
Bustamante AV, Chen J, McKenna RM, Ortega AN. Health care access and utilization among US immigrants before and after the Affordable Care Act,Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 2019;21:211-218. PMCID: PMC6177328. DOI: 10.1007/s10903-018-0741-6.
Chen J, Bustamante AV, Mortensen K, Ortega AN. Racial and ethnic disparities in health care access and utilization under the Affordable Care Act. Medical Care, 2016;54(2):140-146. PMCID: PMC4711386. DOI: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000000467
