Staff Bios

Photograph of Abbey Alkon

Abbey Alkon, RN, Ph.D. is the Director of the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP) and Professor at UCSF School of Nursing Department of Family Health Care Nursing. Dr. Alkon earned her Pediatric Nurse Practitioner/MSN and MPH degrees at the Columbia University and her doctorate in Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Alkon’s clinical and academic career has been dedicated to conducting impactful research, education, and clinical services to address important issues in the field of community-based pediatric health care. She has authored research publications covering a wide range of topics, including early care and education programs/child care, environmental exposure, autonomic nervous system, and healthy habits including physical activity and nutrition. Her work has explored the pesticide exposures in child care centers, the effects of child care health consultation on health and safety standards in child care programs, the effects of prenatal mindfulness intervention on infant autonomic and behavioral reactivity, and the developmental consequences of early life stress on children's physiological regulation and behavior. Dr. Alkon’s work has contributed to our understanding of how to improve the health and well-being of young children attending early care and education programs.

Selected Child Care Publications

  1. Alkon A, Sokal-Gutierrez K, Wolff, M. Child Care Health Consultation Improves Health Knowledge and Compliance. Pediatric Nursing, 28(1), 61-65, 2002.
  2. Alkon A, Ramler M., MacLennan K. Evaluation of mental health consultation in child care centers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 31(2), 91-99, 2003.
  3. Farrer J, Alkon, A, To, K. Child care health consultation programs: Barriers and opportunities. Maternal Child Health Journal. 11(2):111-8, 2007.
  4. Alkon A, Bernzweig J, To K, Mackie J, Wolf, M, Elman J. Child Care Health Consultation Programs in California: Models, Services and Facilitators. Public Health Nursing. 25(2):126-139, 2008.
  5. Bernzweig J, Ramler M, Alkon A. Mental health consultation in early childhood classrooms. Zero to Three. 30(1): 47-51, 2009.
  6. Alkon A, Bernzweig J, To K, Wolff M, Mackie, JF. Child care health consultation improves health and safety policies and practices. Academic Pediatrics. 9(5): 366-370, 2009.
  7. Kalmar, E, Ivey, S, Bradman, A, Leonard, V, Alkon A. Implementing an integrated pest management (IPM) program in child care centers: A qualitative study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 29, 2014: 245-254.
  8. Alkon A, Crowley AA, Benjamin Neelon SE, Hil, S, Pan Y, Nguyen V, Rose R, Savage E, Shipman L, Kotch JB. Nutrition and physical activity intervention in child care improves knowledge, policies, and children's body mass index. BMC Public Health. 14: 215, 2014. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-215
  9. Alkon A, Rose R, Wolff M, Kotch JB, Aronson SS. Health and safety checklist for early care and education programs to assess National Health and Safety Standards. Maternal and Child Health Journal. Jan;20(1):114-27, 2016. doi: 10.1007/s10995-015-1809-8
  10. Alkon A, Nouredini S, Swartz A, Sutherland AS, Stephens M, Davidson N, Rose R. Integrated pest management intervention in child care centers improves knowledge, pest control, and practices. Journal of Pediatric Health Care. Nov-Dec.; 30(6): e27-e41, 2016. doi: 10.1016/j.pedhc.2016.07.004.
  11. Stephens M, Hazard K, Moser D, Cox D, Rose R, Alkon A. An integrated pest management intervention improves knowledge, pest control, and practices in family child care homes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 14: 1299, 2017. doi: 10.3390/ijerph141112999.
  12. Alkon A, Rose R, Hazard K, Moser D. National health and safety standards: Family child care homes compared to child care centers. Journal of Pediatric Health Care. 35(1): 5-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2020.03.004. 
  13. Hashikawa AN, Sells JM, DeJonge PM, Alkon A, Martin ET, Shope TR. Child care in the time of Coronavirus disease-19: A period of challenge and opportunity. J of Pediatrics, 225:239-245. DOI:10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.07.042
  14. Hazard K, Lee D, Ritchie L, Rose R, Diaz Rios LK, Plank K, Alkon A. Development of an online curriculum for California early care and education providers on healthy beverages. BMC Public Health. 21:1387, 2021. doi:10.1186/s12889-021-11428-x.
  15. Ritchie LD, Keeton V, Lee DL, Gurzo K, Vitale EH, Au LE, Alkon A. Nutrition standards for infants and young children can be implemented by family child care home providers. Global Pediatric Health, 8:1-8, 2021. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/2333794X21989555
  16. Alkon A, Gunier R, Hazard, K, Castorina R, Hoffman R, Scott R, Anderson K, Bradman A. Preschool-age children’s pesticide exposures in child care centers and at home in northern California. Journal of Pediatric Health Care. 36(1): 34-45, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2021.09.004.
  17. Mackie JF, Gray H, Himmelgreen D, Marshall J, Alkon A, & Kirby R. Mixed-method assessment of caregiver feeding practices in early care and education centres during COVID-19. Public Health Nutrition. 26(1):12-22, 2023. Doi:10.1017/S1368980022002452

  18. Hazard K, Alkon A, Gunier RB, Castorina R, Camann D, Quarderer S, Bradman A. Predictors of pesticide levels in carpet dust collected from child care centers in Northern California, USA. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. Online Jan 4., 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-022-00516-8

     

Victoria Keeton, PhD, MS, RN, CPNP-PC, CNS is an Assistant Professor of Research at the University of California, Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.  Dr. Keeton earned her MS in Advance Practice Pediatric Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco and her PhD in Nursing and Health Care Leadership at the University of California, Davis.  She has done clinical work at La Clinica de la Raza in Oakland, CA and the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, CA.  Dr. Keeton conducts research in the areas of maternal and infant stress, health equity, and child metabolic health.  She is an expert in early childhood health and environmental exposures, social causes and health consequences of stress in mothers and children with social risk, and physiologic mechanisms of maternal-fetal programming that increase risk for metabolic or mental health conditions.

 

 

Mira Liao, MHS, is a Health Educator with the UCSF California Childcare Health Program.  She holds a Master of Health Science degree in Maternal and Child Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she worked on program evaluation projects, including a national evaluation of Fetal and Infant Mortality Review programs.  She then provided program evaluation technical assistance to community organizations in Hawaii seeking to promote healthy behavior.  She joined the CCHP team in 2017 after working for seven years as an administrator in a parent co-operative child care center.  She coordinates two state-funded projects, the California Preventive Health and Safety Training and Technical Assistance Program and the evaluation of the Integrated Pest Management Training of Trainers for Early Care and Education Programs.  She also contributes to CCHP's project with the Office of Head Start National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety.

Yaruska Ordinola, MPH (she/her/ella) is a Research Assistant and Assistant Training Coordinator at the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP). She holds a BS in Psychology and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Rhode Island, and a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology from Brown University. In her role, Yaruska supports research and data collection for the Healthy Children and Environments Study (HCES) and supports training and coordination for the California Preventive Health Training and Technical Assistance Program. Outside of her work in environmental health research, Yaruska enjoys hiking, bullet journaling, photography, and engaging with her community.

Photo of a person

Jessica Rayo, MS, is  is a PhD student in Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership with an emphasis in Computational Social Science at UC Davis. She is a Graduate Student Researcher with the UCSF Healthy Children and Environment Study, where she supports community-engaged research focused on reducing pesticide exposure in family child care homes in California’s Central Valley. Her broader research experience spans environmental health, digital health, mHealth, and health equity. Jessica is bilingual in English and Spanish and is committed to culturally responsive research that supports families, care providers, and underserved communities.