health promotion in social networks & complex systems  

Kayla de la Haye is a scientist at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Center for Economic and Social Research, where she directs the Institute for Food System Equity. She works to promote health and prevent disease by applying social network analysis and systems science to key public health issues.

Her research engages family and community social networks, and broader social determinants of health, to promote healthy eating, nutrition security, and prevent chronic disease. It also explores the role of social networks in group problem solving in families, teams, and coalitions. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the American Heart Association.

Dr. de la Haye was previously an Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at USC, and worked as an Associate Behavioral/Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation. She currently serves as Vice President of the International Network of Social Network Analysis (INSNA), and in 2018, she received the INSNA Freeman Award for significant contributions to the study of social structure. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Adelaide, Australia.