Get to know the team: Chelsea Liu, PhD

Chelsea Liu, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, joined the Center for Health Equity (CHE) in December 2024. With a background in both computational methods and population health, Liu brings a dynamic and interdisciplinary lens to her research in neuroepidemiology.

Before arriving at the School of Public Health, Liu completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she trained in the Department of Epidemiology. Under the mentorship of an environmental epidemiologist, she studied the impact of flooding, extreme heat, and other environmental stressors on the health of senior adults, including their risk of cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.

Liu earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2022, where she sharpened her expertise in leveraging large-scale datasets to uncover patterns in public health outcomes. Her doctoral work focused on individual-level risk factors, such as education, literacy, and the broader quality of educational experiences, and how these factors shape long-term cognitive health and risk for dementia. Before that, she completed her undergraduate degree at Duke University as a computer science major, drawn early on to the intersection of technology, health, and non-medical drivers of health. Her pivot to epidemiology was driven by a deep interest in understanding and improving population health through data-informed research.

Liu is currently leading a project focused on tracking the cognitive health trajectories of adults living in the Lower Rio Grande Valley as part of the long-standing Cameron County Hispanic Cohort in Brownsville. With over 20 years of rich data, this community-based project is now expanding to include new insights into brain health, sparking renewed collaborations in the field of aging and cognition.

Recently, Liu collaborated on several studies on the role of high blood pressure, psychosocial health, and amyloid burden on the risk of dementia. She has also contributed to a study on the use of target trial emulation methods to assess the effect of antihypertensive medication use on dementia risk across three population-based cohorts.

Since relocating to the Rio Grande Valley, Liu has developed a strong connection to the community where she lives. After recently experiencing a significant flood, she has renewed her focus on community resilience to the health effects of environmental threats.

Liu’s commitment to bridging individual and environmental factors in population health reflects the CHE’s mission of advancing health opportunity and innovation through interdisciplinary research and collaboration. We are excited to have her as part of our team and look forward to the meaningful contributions she will make to our understanding of cognitive aging and environmental health in underserved communities.