About

Leila Barraza is a Professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, where she also serves as the Department Chair. She is the Director of the Arizona Area Health Education Centers program (AzAHEC). Her research interests include studying the impact of laws and regulations on population health. Barraza received a Master in Public Health from the Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona in 2004. Following her master's degree, she worked for the Center for Rural Health at the same college, providing assistance to rural and tribal hospitals and clinics regarding medical designation opportunities, health practitioner recruitment, emergency medical services, and funding opportunities. She earned her J.D. with a Certificate in Law, Science, and Technology from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2008. After law school, she served as a law clerk for the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, from 2009 to 2012. Prior to her current academic role, Barraza was Deputy Director of the Network for Public Health Law – Western Region Office and a Fellow and Adjunct Professor in the Public Health Law and Policy Program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Her scholarly work has been published in several journals, including JAMA, AJPH, Public Health Reports, Jurimetrics Journal, Annals of Health Law, and the Journal for Law, Medicine, and Ethics. She has also presented at numerous national and local conferences on critical public health law issues and instructs a public health law course for students in public health and law.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Environmental health
• Internal medicine
• Psychiatry
• Sociology
• Political Science
• Business
• Emergency medicine
• Virology
• Gerontology
• Family medicine
• Psychology
• Nursing
• Criminology

Selected publications

• Perspectives of HPV vaccine decision-making among young adults: A qualitative systematic review and evidence synthesis

  PLoS ONE · 2025-05-05 · 4 citations

  reviewOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Despite the demonstrated safety and effectiveness of HPV vaccines in preventing HPV-related cancers, global vaccine coverage remains low. The suboptimal adolescent HPV vaccine coverage rate leaves many young adults at increased risk for developing vaccine preventable HPV-related cancers. This qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) aims to examine the HPV vaccination perspectives of young adults globally and identify the barriers and facilitators to HPV vaccine uptake and decision-making processes. METHODS: A comprehensive search was conducted on October 2023 across seven databases to identify studies that reported on HPV vaccination among young adults aged 18-26 years and used qualitive study methods or analysis techniques. RESULTS: Forty-two studies were purposively sampled for inclusion, presenting 29 findings across 10 thematic categories. Vaccine eligible young adults believed that they had aged out of eligibility for HPV vaccination. There was also a perspective that condom use, and regular screenings were alternatives to vaccination in preventing HPV infections. Challenges included scheduling appointments, requirements for multiple shots, and vaccine cost. There was also concern for the gendered nature of vaccine promotion. Lastly, despite being at the age to make autonomous decisions, parents were still influential and active in the vaccine decision-making process for their children. CONCLUSION: The novelty of this study, as one of the principal QES on catch-up HPV vaccination, presents findings that underscore the complexity of factors across multiple ecological levels which may aid or impede vaccination uptake among young adults and provide important considerations for interventions, programs, and policies aimed at addressing HPV vaccination disparities among young adults.

  PublisherDOI

• Developing a Clinically Validated Screening Tool to Assess Food and Nutrition Security Among Wisconsin’s Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers

  Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · 2024-09-18

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Supreme Court Impacts in Public Health Law: 2023-2024

  The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics · 2024-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  In a "mixed bag" 2023-2024 session, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a series of decisions both favorable and antithetical to public health and safety. Taking on tough constitutional issues implicating gun control, misinformation, and homelessness, the Court also avoided substantive reviews in favor of procedural dismissals in key cases involving reproductive rights and government censorship.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Supreme Court Impacts in Public Health Law: 2023-2024

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Policy Recommendations for Improving Rural Cancer Services in the United States

  JCO Oncology Practice · 2023-02-03 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  Compared with urban residents, rural Americans have seen slower declines in cancer deaths, have lower incidence but higher death rates from cancers that can be prevented through screening, have lower screening rates, are more likely to present with later-stage cancers, and have poorer cancer outcomes and lower survival. Rural health provider shortages and lack of cancer services may explain some disparities. The literature was reviewed to identify factors contributing to rural health care capacity shortages and propose policy recommendations for improving rural cancer care. Uncompensated care, unfavorable payer mix, and low patient volume impede rural physician recruitment and retainment. Students from rural areas are more likely to practice there but are less likely to attend medical school because of lower graduation rates, grades, and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores versus urban students. The cancer care infrastructure is costly and financially challenging in rural areas with high proportions of uninsured and publicly insured patients. A lack of data on oncology providers and equipment impedes coordinated efforts to address rural shortages. Graduate Medical Education funding greatly favors large, urban, tertiary care teaching hospitals over residency training in rural, critical access and community-based hospitals and clinics. Policies have the potential to transform rural health care. This includes increasing advanced practice provider postgraduate oncology training opportunities and expanding the scope of practice; improving health workforce and services data collection and aggregation; transforming graduate medical education subsidies to support rural student recruitment and rural training opportunities; and expanding federal and state financial incentives and payments to support the rural cancer infrastructure.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Midterm Maelstrom: Public Health Legal Impacts of Election 2022

  The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics · 2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Among the morass of critical issues impacting the results of the midterm elections in 2022 were core public health issues related to health care access, justice, and reforms. Collectively, voters' communal health and safety concerns dominated outcomes in key races which may shape national, state, and local legal approaches to protecting the public's health in the modern era.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Supreme Court Impacts in Public Health Law: 2022-2023

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Supreme Court Impacts in Public Health Law: 2022-2023

  The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics · 2023-01-01 · 2 citations

  article

  In another tumultuous term of the United States Supreme Court in 2022-2023 a series of critical cases implicate instant and forthcoming changes in multiple fronts that collectively shift the national public health law and policy environment.

  PublisherDOI

• Consequences of COVID-19 on adolescents in Arizona: A longitudinal study protocol

  Frontiers in Public Health · 2022-12-15 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Introduction: The long-term impact of COVID-19 is unknown. We developed a 5-year prospective cohort study designed to generate actionable community-informed research about the consequences of COVID-19 on adolescents ages 12-17 years in Arizona. Methods: The study has two primary outcomes: 1) acute and long-term outcomes of COVID-19 illness and 2) symptoms of depression and anxiety. Data is collected using an online survey with plans to integrate qualitative data collection methods. The survey is administered at baseline, 4, and 8 months in year one, and annually in years two through five. This study is informed by Intersectionality Theory, which considers the diverse identities adolescents have that are self and socially defined and the influence they have collectively and simultaneously. To this end, a sample of variables collected is race/ethnicity, language usage, generational status, co-occurring health conditions, and gender. Additional measures capture experiences in social contexts such as home (parent employment, food, and housing security), school (remote learning, type of school), and society (racism). Results: Findings are not presented because the manuscript is a protocol designed to describe the procedure instead of report results. Discussion: The unique contributions of the study is its focus on COVID-19 the illness and COVID-19 the socially experienced pandemic and the impact of both on adolescents.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Regressive Federalism, Rights Reversals, and the Public’s Health

  The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics · 2022-01-01 · 1 citations

  article

  As the United States emerges from the worst public health threat it has ever experienced, the Supreme Court is poised to reconsider constitutional principles from bygone eras. Judicial proposals to roll back rights under a federalism infrastructure grounded in states' interests threaten the nation's legal fabric at a precarious time. This column explores judicial shifts in 3 key public health contexts - reproductive rights, vaccinations, and national security - and their repercussions.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• James G. Hodge

  31 shared

• James G. Hodge

  17 shared

• Jennifer L. Piatt

  16 shared

• Kim Weidenaar

  Arizona State University

  11 shared

• Erica N. White

  Arizona State University

  10 shared

• Chelsea L. Gulinson

  National Health Law Program

  9 shared

• Alicia Corbett

  Center for Urban Population Health

  9 shared

• Michelle Castagne

  9 shared

Awards & honors

• Jill de Zapien Award