Roshan Bastani, Ph.D., is a health psychologist whose main research focus over the past two decades has been the study of access to health care among low income, ethnic minority, and other underserved groups. She has conducted numerous community-based intervention studies designed to evaluate the most effective and efficient means of reducing cancer disparities and has had continuous research funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) since 1988. Bastani is professor of health services and associate dean for research in the School of Public Health as well as co-director of its Center to Eliminate Health Disparities.

Bastani has developed ties with numerous community-based organizations that serve the diverse population of Los Angeles. She also works closely with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, which provides the principal access to health care for the county's indigent population. Most of her research is conducted in collaboration with these organizations to ensure responsiveness to community risk profiles and needs. Some of the populations she has involved in her studies include low-income African Americans and Latinos, Koreans, Filipinos, Samoans, South Asians and Middle Easterners, as well as low-income seniors, homeless persons and the deaf.