La Gerontóloga

I am an assistant professor in Human Development and Family Science at Syracuse University located in Central New York, USA.

I also hold a secondary appointment in the Department of Sociology and hold affiliations with the Aging Studies Institute, Center for Aging and Policy Studies, the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health, and the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean.

As a trained gerontologist, population health scientist, and research methodologist, I primarily use large, population-based survey data to examine how contextual, biological, social, and psychosocial processes operate across an individual’s life course to influence the development of disease risk.

Driven and inspired by my roots as a multiracial Honduran and Puerto Rican in Los Angeles, California, a large body of my work highlights the diversity and variation within the Latina/o/x population to address disparities in health across the life course. This work has been supported by the National Institute on Aging and has been published in the Journals of Gerontology, The Gerontologist, Journal of Aging and Health, and Innovation in Aging to name a few.

As a university educator, I have taught courses in quantitative methods, gerontology, and medical sociology. In all of my courses I employ a sentipensante pedagogy, which allows my students to engage in deep learning through contemplative practices that connect the course material to their lived experiences and backgrounds. This is part of realizing my goals of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the academy.