Xiang Gao

PH.D, MPH, Assistant Professor

Public Health Education

Email Address: x_gao5@uncg.edu

Phone: 336.256.8506

Bio & Education

Personal Introduction

I enjoy exploring the beauty of nature. I love visiting national parks and beaches. On a recent trip, I visited Smoky Mountain National Park, Myrtle Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Coca Beach! I am planning my next trip to Wilmington, NC!

Professional Profile

Dr. Xiang Gao is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). Dr. Gao also holds research affiliations with the Carolina Asia Center (CAC) and the Carolina Center for Population Aging and Health (CCPAH) at UNC Chapel Hill. In terms of research, Dr. Gao’s research seeks to understand how socioecological factors affect health disparities and equity among vulnerable populations. Dr. Gao’s research lines cover cardiovascular disease epidemiology in African Americans, driving behavior in emerging adults, and injury and violence in high school students and Asian Americans.

Dr. Gao’s active research investigates the impacts of sociodemographic and health-related factors on Asian American health disparities, suicide, early childhood adversity, and firearm violence. In addition to being a public health researcher and an epidemiologist, Dr. Gao is a pedagogue. Dr. Gao teaches Epidemiology and Data Analysis to undergraduates. Dr. Gao also teaches Quantitative Methods at the graduate level. Regarding mentoring experiences and services, Dr. Gao is an active McNair Scholar faculty mentor at UNCG who mentors and advocates for underrepresented African American undergraduate students. Dr. Gao also serves on the Undergraduate Program Committee (UPC) in the Department of Public Health Education at UNCG.

Dr. Gao did his postdoctoral fellowship at the Columbia Center for Injury Science and Prevention (CCISP) in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in the City of New York. During the postdoctoral training, Dr. Gao investigated how firearm laws impact firearm violence and how environmental strategies improve traffic safety and injury violence. Dr. Gao holds a Ph.D. in Health and Exercise Science from Colorado State University. Dr. Gao’s doctoral work investigates why emerging adults have risky driving behaviors using the NEXT generation health study, which examines the trajectories of adolescent health and health behaviors through the transition from high school to emerging adulthood in collaboration with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Dr. Gao holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from Indiana University Bloomington. During master’s training, Dr. Gao studied epidemiological cardiovascular disease among African Americans in the Jackson Heart Study, a community-based epidemiologic investigation of environmental and genetic factors associated with cardiovascular disease among African Americans funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLB) and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparity (NIMHD).

Dr. Gao has more than ten years of experience in longitudinal data analysis, scientific interpretation of risky behaviors, and data management in public health, epidemiology, and behavioral science. Dr. Gao is proficient in trajectory analysis, categorical data analysis, multinomial data analysis, and moderation/mediation analysis using SAS and R. Besides that, Dr. Gao is also an advocate for advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice for underrepresented Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) students in academia.

• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University in the City of New York
• Ph.D. in Human Bioenergetics Department of Health and Exercise Science, Colorado State University
• M.P.H. in Epidemiology, Indiana University, Bloomington
• M.D. in Preventive Medicine, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou City, China

Office Hours and Location

Office Hours

By Appointment

Location

437 E Coleman Building

Courses Taught

• HEA 315 Epidemiology
• HEA 325 Public Health Data Analysis
• HEA 604/704 Quantitative Methods

Research

• Asian American
• Injury
• Violence
• Firearms

Current Projects

• National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health): My current research uses data from the Add Health to examine how structural and social conditions shape health and safety outcomes among Asian American youth across the life course. This work focuses on how experiences such as discrimination, community violence exposure, neighborhood context, and social support influence mental health, risk behaviors, and long-term well-being from adolescence into adulthood. By leveraging nationally representative longitudinal data, this project aims to identify subgroup differences within Asian American populations that are often hidden in aggregated analyses, and to better understand how early-life exposures are linked to later disparities in safety, behavioral health, and social outcomes. This research seeks to inform prevention strategies that address both social environments and structural drivers of inequity affecting Asian American communities.
• Transforming Racialized Data to Actionable Deliverables: Multi-Approaches to Advancing Asian American Youth Health and Well-Being (Asian American youth face rising rates of psychological distress, economic hardship, and racialized violence, yet remain largely invisible in public health data and underserved by existing systems. This project will integrate disaggregated causal analyses with community-partnered and youth-led methods—such as photovoice and geographic information system (GIS) mapping—to examine how structural exposures and exclusionary policies affect youth health, safety, and development. Findings will produce actionable evidence and practical tools to strengthen community-based organizations’ capacity, inform system-level change, and improve inclusion and responsiveness for historically excluded youth populations.
• Resilient Pathways: Trauma-Informed Support Prog for Youth with ACEs (The overarching goal of this project is to collaboratively develop, implement, and evaluate Resilient Pathways using an epidemiologically informed, multi-method approach. This will be accomplished by actively soliciting input from program beneficiaries in ways that guide its design and delivery. This approach will ensure accurate assessment of program effectiveness, identify population needs, and explore mechanisms for sustained impact.) 
• Gun laws and violence on affecting racialized health outcomes (While gun laws widely impact on gun practice behaviors, there is limited research disaggregating gun laws and explore how it influences racialized/marginalized vulnerable population health outcomes. This project is disaggregating gun laws and link it to different types of risky behaviors and identify modifiable socioeconomic factors buffer such risk behaviors.)

Selected Publications

• Gao X., Horbal RS, Bidulescu A. (2025) Mental Health and Sexual Dating Violence Victimization among U.S. High School Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from 2021 National Surveys. AJPM Focus. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.focus.2026.100478
• Gao X., Siddiqui S. (2025) Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Psychological Distress among Older Asian Americans in California. Asian American Journal of Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/aap0000405
• Gao X., Horbal RS, Burford K, Bidulescu A. (2025). Alcohol Use Mediates the Association between Sexual Dating Violence Victimization and Attempted Suicide. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2025.107663
• Zadey, S., Roberts, L., Bushover, B., Gobaud, A.N., Mehranbod, C., Fish, C., Eschliman, E., Gao, X., Goin, D., & Morrison, C.N. (2025). Effectiveness of Leading Pedestrian Intervals for Pedestrian Safety in New York City. Nature Cities. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00267-1
• Bushover B, Kim A, Mehranbod CA, Roberts LE, Gobaud AN, Eschliman EL, Fish C, Gao X, Zadey S, Goin DE, Morrison CN. (2025) The association between street construction projects and community violence in New York City. Journal of Urban Health. 2025 Jan 3:1-0. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-024-00946-9
• Siddiqui S, Gao X. (2024) Housing Instability and Concerns about Firearm Victimization among Asian Americans. Injury Prevention. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2024-045443
• Bushover, B., Mehranbod, C.A., Roberts, L., Gobaud, A.N., Fish, C., Gao, X., Zadey, S., & Morrison, C.N. (2024). Temperature and firearm violence in four US cities: Testing competing hypotheses. Injury Prevention. DOI: 10.1136/ip-2024-045248
• Roberts, L., Bushover, B., Mehranbod, C.A., Gobaud, A.N., Fish, C., Eschliman, E.L., Gao, X., Zadey, S., & Morrison, C.N. (2024). Physical environmental roadway interventions and injury and death for vulnerable road users: a natural experiment in New York City. Injury Prevention. DOI: 10.1136/ip-2023-045219
•  Gao, X., Horbal, S. R., Burford, K. G., & Bidulescu, A. (2025). Alcohol use mediates the association between sexual dating violence victimization and attempted suicide among US high school students. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 107663. 
•  Siddiqui, S. M., & Gao, X. (2024). Housing instability and concern about firearm victimization among Asian Americans. Injury Prevention
• Bushover, B., Mehranbod, C. A., Roberts, L. E., Gobaud, A. N., Fish, C., Gao, X., … & Morrison, C. N. (2024). Temperature and firearm violence in four US cities: testing competing hypotheses. Injury prevention
• Roberts, L., Mehranbod, C.A., Bushover, B., Gobaud, A.N., Eschliman, E.L., Fish, C., Zadey, S., Gao, X., & Morrison, C.N. (2024). Trends in New York City Transit Police complaints and arrests, 2018 to 2023: An interrupted time-series analysis. Injury Epidemiology. DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.03.24306847
• Gao, X. (2023). Driving behaviors and related factors on emerging adults: a narrative review. Discover Psychology. DOI: 10.1007/s44202-023-00090-6