As a counseling psychologist, my research to date has focused on health disparities and elucidating the social and cultural determinants of health among marginalized populations, with an emphasis on Latinx populations, young adults, cisgender women, LGBTQ+ populations, and people with disabilities and their caregivers. I am currently a Minnesota Population Center PopScholar writing an R03 proposal to be submitted to NICHD that will advance our scientific understanding about structural factors driving sexual and reproductive health disparities, including structural sexism. I also will be resubmitting a K23 proposal that has an aim focused on using community-level census data to delineate social disadvantage in relation to sexual and reproductive health indices in NYC as formative data analysis.
As an Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Minnesota, my work is centered on psychological, social, and behavioral correlates of health risk behaviors and health disparities among marginalized groups, with particular focus on racial, ethnic, and sexual minority groups at risk for substance use disorders and HIV. I received my PhD in Counseling Psychology with a Certificate in Health Disparities in Public Health from University at Albany. Prior to starting at UMN, I completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute.