William Matthew London

INTRODUCTION

I began my Cal State LA career in the 2006-2007 academic year as coordinator of the Health Science Program. In Fall 2007, I began my appointment as a professor in the Health Science Program (which later became the Department of Health Science and is now the Department of Public Health with both a B.S. in Public Health Program and an M.P.H. Program). I was named a professor emeritus in October 2023.

My previous faculty appointments were at Kent State University, College of Saint Elizabeth (Morristown, NJ), Walden University, Touro University International (now Trident University International), Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, and California State University, Long Beach. I've also had administrative positions at RAP Inc. (telephone crisis hotline and telephone reassurance program for homebound elderly in Genesee County, NY), the American Council on Science and Health, and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. I have served as the founding president of the Ohio Council Against Health Fraud, Inc., the president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, a contributing editor to the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine and Aberrant Health Practices, and North American senior editor of the journal Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies (FACT).

I am currently editor of the weekly e-newsletter Consumer Health Digest (after serving as associate editor from 2002 to 2017), a content curator for the Center for Inquiry's Coronavirus Resource Center page, developer of the Center for Inquiry's Dubious COVID-19 Treatments and Preventives page, co-host of the Credential Watch website (since 2005), a review board member of the journal Health Behavior and Policy Review, a member of the peer review board of the Journal of Health Education Teaching, a section editor (complementary and alternative medicine) for the California Journal of Health Promotion, a reviewer for the journal Pedagogy in Health Promotion, online Consumer Health columnist for Skeptical Inquirer, and a fellow of the Committee on Skeptical Inquiry.

TEACHING INTERESTS

Major areas of emphasis in my teaching include the importance of: information literacy, numeracy (numerical literacy), healthy skepticism, science & ethics-based practice, and consumer advocacy regarding public health issues. I like to teach about addiction, risk perception, priority setting in public health, and human vulnerability to deception and misperception related to health. I have taught more than fifty different undergraduate and graduate courses during my career.

I've taught these undergraduate courses at Cal State L.A.:

• Community Health Care Programs
• Consumer Health (formerly Selecting Medical Products and Services)
• Data Analysis in Public Health
• Directed Study
• Drugs and Health
• Health Promotion
• Health and Wellness
• Health Care Delivery System
• Healthy Skepticism
• Introduction to Epidemiology
• Introduction to Higher Education
• Introduction to Research Analysis and Technical Writing
• Internship
• Proseminar: Current Issues in Health
• Psychophysiology of Substance Abuse and Violence
• Public Health Administration
• Statistics in Health and Human Services
• Theory and Principles of Public Health
• Transition to California State University, Los Angeles for Health and Human Services Majors

I've taught these graduate courses at Cal State LA:

• Culminating Project
• Principles of Epidemiology

RESEARCH

I study a wide range of consumer health issues. I'm especially interested in studying the promotion of health-related misinformation, sensationalism, superstition, pseudoscience, and quackery through mass media and interpersonal communication and the vulnerability of consumers to deception, cognitive biases, and errors in perception. 

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

M.P.H. health administration 1995

• Loma Linda University
  Loma Linda, CA

Ed.D. health education 1986

• University at Buffalo (SUNY)
  Buffalo, NY

Ed.M. health education 1984

• University at Buffalo (SUNY)
  Buffalo, NY

Ed.M. educational psychology 1984

• University at Buffalo (SUNY)
  Buffalo, NY

B.A. biological science 1980 & B.A. geography 1980, magna cum laude

• University at Buffalo (SUNY)
  Buffalo, NY

I also completed all coursework except the thesis toward an M.S. in clinical research at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA.