Alan Farsio Mozaffari (he/him) is a Health Policy PhD student in the Population Health Sciences track. His research examines how social and political-economic conditions within systems (e.g., schools, the criminal-legal system, and urban systems) shape developmental health and trajectories in early childhood and adolescence. He uses mixed methods, causal inference, systems thinking, and participatory action research to pursue two reinforcing goals: (1) to identify how policy mechanisms structure the systems that enable or constrain healthy developmental experiences, and (2) to explore how centering developmental needs in policy and social system design can prevent adverse developmental outcomes by strengthening protective factors and reducing risk factors, ultimately advancing health equity across the life course.
Prior to starting his PhD, he conducted community-based participatory research with youth and their families in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and St. Louis, MO, as well as quantitative research for a longitudinal, population-based study of young children in Massachusetts. Alan was motivated to pursue a career at the intersections of policy and developmental health while teaching middle school history during his college summers with the Breakthrough Collaborative in San Francisco, where he was born and raised. He holds a Master of Education and a Master of Public Health, both from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Urban Studies from Washington University in St. Louis.
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