Dr. Valerie Yerger is a Professor in Health Policy at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Yerger is clinically trained as a naturopathic doctor and was the first licensed midwife in the State of California. She is also a former Health Disparities Scholar of the National Institutes of Health. During the past 20 years, Dr. Yerger’s research and advocacy work have focused on framing the disproportionate burden of tobacco among marginalized communities as a social injustice and informing public health policies to effectively reach and engage these communities. Her research of previously secret tobacco documents uncovered the tobacco industry’s relationships with African American leadership groups, the accumulation of nicotine in tissues containing melanin, the disproportionate marketing of menthol cigarettes in inner-city communities, and tobacco companies’ in-house research on the use of menthol as an additive in tobacco products.

Dr. Yerger has served on the California Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee (TEROC). She is also a founding member of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. Dr. Yerger is the past recipient of numerous awards, including the Truth Initiative’s Sybil G. Jacobs Award for Outstanding Use of Tobacco Industry Documents, CTPP’s Carol M. Russell Award for Leadership and Vision in Tobacco Control, the 2018 UCSF Chancellor Award for Public Service, and the Public Health Law Center’s Game Changer Award. Currently, Dr. Yerger oversees the statewide project, “The LOOP.”