Mata'uitafa Faiai, MPH

Mata’uitafā (Mata’u) Faiai is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Her doctoral research focuses on the cardiometabolic health of adolescents in American Samoa, a population disproportionately affected by chronic diseases. Her dissertation examines the prevalence of and risk factors for obesity, diabetes, and hypertension using a mixed-methods design that combines qualitative research with innovative social network analysis to investigate how friendship networks and social environments shape health behaviors.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Chaminade University of Honolulu and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health.