Ai Kubo, MPH, PhD, is a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. She earned her Master’s in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002, and her PhD in Epidemiology from Columbia University in 2007.
Dr. Kubo’s research centers on the complex dimensions of maternal and child health, with a significant focus on cardiometabolic health. She is particularly interested in the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), exploring how maternal metabolic factors—such as obesity, gestational diabetes, and other clinical conditions—affect long-term cardiometabolic outcomes in children, including the risk of diabetes, hypertension, and other cardiovascular diseases. She also examines how social and environmental influences, including structural racism and early-life adversities, further contribute to these health outcomes. Dr. Kubo’s overarching goal is to develop targeted interventions to improve maternal health, optimize child cardiometabolic outcomes, and reduce disparities.
A significant portion of her work aims to understand and address health disparities across the life course. In particular, Dr. Kubo investigates how early-life social determinants affect the risk of cardiometabolic conditions, focusing on at-risk populations. Her research aims to provide insight into how systemic factors shape health trajectories and to inform strategies for mitigating these risks.
For over a decade, Dr. Kubo has been at the forefront of developing and testing technology-based mindfulness interventions designed to improve the psychological well-being of vulnerable populations. Recognizing the links between mental health and cardiometabolic risk, these interventions are intended to be accessible to individuals facing barriers to traditional care. Currently, she leads a randomized controlled trial involving 600 Black and Latina pregnant individuals at high risk for postpartum depression (R01 NIMH), with the goal of improving not only maternal mental health but also offspring cardiometabolic outcomes. By leveraging findings from longitudinal studies of adolescents and insights gained from her intervention trials, Dr. Kubo’s long-term objective is to develop scalable, practical behavioral interventions—extending beyond mindfulness—that address cardiometabolic risk factors and reduce health disparities, particularly among pregnant mothers and families with young children.
In addition to her work on maternal and child health, Dr. Kubo has examined disparities among Asian American youth subgroups, highlighting the role of socioeconomic and structural factors. In line with NIH’s research priorities, she will soon launch two new NIH-funded projects that focus on Asian health and disparities, aiming to conduct robust, population-based research that addresses the drivers of disparities in cardiometabolic health of adolescents and young adults within these often underrepresented populations.