overview

• Over the past 35 years I have dedicated my academic career to research oriented to understanding and improving the health of Latino populations in the island of Puerto Rico (PR) and in the mainland. As a Professor at the School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and the Director of the Behavioral Sciences Research Institute (BSRI) at the University of Puerto Rico, I have been the principal investigator and or co-investigator of several grants funded from various Institutes of the National Institute of Health (NIH). Presently, I am one of multiple principal investigators (MPIs) of four (4) R01 grants: 1) R01 MD012225; 2) R01 MD013866; 3) R01 MD016426 and 4) R01 HL159701), one UH3: (UH3 OD023328) and co-investigator in two R01 grants: 1) R01 ES032870, Lugo-Canales (PI), and 2) R01 HL168539, Celedon (PI) all funded by NIH. I am an ad hoc reviewer of several high impact peer review journals and was a member of the DSM V workgroup of child disruptive behavior disorders. Throughout my career I have collaborated on various research projects and published with national and international investigators. My published work is related to the field of adult and child psychiatric epidemiology, pediatric and genetics of asthma, psychometrics, health services research, prevention, and outcome research, as well as Latino health disparities. I have been the principal investigator of more than 6 population based epidemiological studies that have been carried out in the island of Puerto Rico and two randomized control trials designed to test pediatric asthma interventions and cognitive behavior therapy. I was the principal investigator (PI) of the Pediatric Asthma Disparities Center in collaboration with Drs. Daphne Koinis-Mitchell and McQuaid. For more than a decade, I have continued to collaborate with these two investigators and more recently we are working in two projects (R01 MD012225-01, R01 HL159701) to develop pediatric asthma disparities programs that integrate evidence-based interventions in home and school settings. In addition, I have published on the relationship between stress and trauma and pediatric psychiatric disorders as well as pediatric asthma. Thus, both my past and present work is highly related to the main aims of the proposed application.