Thalia Porteny, PhD, MSc.

Dr. Thalia Porteny is a health policy scholar and applied ethicist. She is a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Mailman School of Public Health. Her interests are motivated by the needs she saw growing up in Mexico and working in the Mexican Ministry of Health. Drawing from ethics, health services research and implementation science, she employs qualitative and quantitative methods in her investigations. Her work aims to better understand the health needs and experiences of vulnerable populations, primarily older adult migrants, to advance fairer patient treatment, allocation, and access to health resources. Professor Porteny earned her PhD and master's degree in health policy and ethics at Harvard University. She then completed her postdoc training at the lab for Research on Ethics Aging and Community Health (REACH Lab) at Tufts University. Professor Porteny also worked and collaborated with various institutions such as WHO/PAHO, Doctors Without Borders, UCLA, the University of Miami, and the RAND Corporation. She has received several awards and scholarships from the National Institute of Health and from the Mexican Government.

Dr. Portney’s USC AD/ADRD RCMAR project, Estimating the Impact of Spatial Social Polarization on Dementia Disparities, focuses on the role of nativity and age of immigration on biological aging and Cognitive function among the Mexican-origin population in the US.