Meet the Team

Investigators

Principal Investigator:

 

Josiemer Mattei, PhD, MPH

Donald and Sue Pritzker Associate Professor of Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston MA 02115

Email: jmattei@hsph.harvard.edu

Phone: 617-432-3017

Areas of interest: Nutritional Epidemiology, Cardiometabolic Health, Allostatic Load, Psychosocial Factors, Minority Health, Mixed Methods Research, Dietary Interventions

 

Co-Investigators:

José F. Rodríguez-Orengo, PhD

CEO & CSO, FDI Clinical Research 998 Luis Muñoz Rivera Ave, San Juan PR 00927. Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Medical Sciences Campus-University of Puerto Rico

Executive Director, Puerto Rico Public Health Trust, Street 21 Int Pr 18 Bo Monacillo Urbano
San Juan, PR 00927

Email: jrodriguez@fdipr.com

Phone: 787-722-1248 x.293, 787-602-0336

Areas of interest: Biochemical Pharmacology and Nutrition, Public Health Policy

 

Carlos Ríos-Bedoya, ScD, MPH

Corporate Director of Scholarly Inquiry, McLaren Health, Grand Blanc, MI, Adjunct Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Investigator, FDI Clinical Research 998 Luis Muñoz Rivera Ave, San Juan PR 00927

Email: cfriosbedoya@gmail.com

Phone: 517-974-7665

Areas of interest: Epidemiology, Adolescent drug use, mobile technology in population-based research, quantitative epidemiology, minority health.

 

Luis M. Falcón, PhD

Dean of the College of Fine Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Email: Luis_Falcon@uml.edu

Phone: 978-934-3843

Areas of interest: Social Networks, Aging, Depression, Stress

 

Robert C. Kaplan, PhD

Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Population Health, Dorothy and William Manealoff Foundation and Molly Rosen Chair in Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus 1300 Morris Park Avenue Belfer Building, Room 1315, Bronx, NY 10461

Email: robert.kaplan@einstein.yu.edu

Phone: 718.430.4076

Areas of interest: Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Health Disparities, Metabolomics

 

Katherine L. Tucker, PhD

Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Population Health, University of Massachusetts Lowell. Editor-in Chief of Advances in Nutrition, an international review journal.

Email: katherine_tuker@uml.edu

Phone: (978) 934-4066

Areas of interest: Nutritional Epidemiology, Health Disparities

 

Sebastien Haneuse, PhD

Professor of Biostatistics and Director of Graduate Studies, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Email: haneuse@hsph.harvard.edu

Phone: (617) 432-3980

Areas of interest: Epidemiology

Staff

Sigrid Mendoza Sánchez, PhD –Principal Project Coordinator

FDI Clinical Research 998 Luis Muñoz Rivera Ave, San Juan PR 00927

Email: smendoza@fdipr.com; smendoza@hsph.harvard.edu

Phone: 787-722-1248 Ext. 246

Areas of interest: Social and Community Psychology, Social Determinants of Health Related to Gender and CVD risk, Sexuality and Health, Minority Research

 

Jonathan Orozco-González, BA – Data Coordinator

FDI Clinical Research 998 Luis Muñoz Rivera Ave, San Juan PR 00927

Email: jorozco@fdipr.com

Phone: 787-722-1248

Areas of interest: Gerontology, Community Services, Drug Addiction, Pharmacology, Business

 

Martha Tamez, ScD, MS –Postdoctoral Research Data Analyst

Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Email: m.tamez@mail.harvard.edu

Phone: 857-272 3619

Areas of interest: Nutritional Epidemiology in Hispanics/Latinos, Traditional Diets, Diet Quality, Cardiovascular Disease

Abrania Marrero, PhD, SM – Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Email: amarrerohernandez@fas.harvard.edu

Areas of interest: Nutrition, Climate Change, Food Sovereignty, Traditional Food Cultures, Cardiometabolic Disease, Small Island Developing States

 

Karla Medina, MS – Assistant Coordinator

FDI Clinical Research 998 Luis Muñoz Rivera Ave, San Juan PR 00927

Email: kmedina@hsph.harvard.edu; kmedina@fdipr.com

Areas of interest: Molecular Biology, Immunology, Virology, Social Determinants Related to Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes Research

 

Kimberly Martínez, BA – Graphic Artist

Portfolio

Email: kmartinez@fdipr.com

Consultants and Collaborators

Andrés Calle, MS

CEO-Founder of AppLivio Company

1250 Ave Ponce de Leon, suite 400, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00907

Email: info@applivio.com

Phone: 939-545-0097

Areas of interest: Industrial Engineering, Healthcare Management Systems, Business Development, Materials Science Research

 

Edna Acosta-Pérez, PhD, MSc

Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public Health, Medical Sciences Campus-University of Puerto Rico, and Research Director at University of Puerto Rico’s Behavioral Sciences Research Institute. PO Box 365067, San Juan PR 00936-5067

Email: edna.acosta2@upr.edu

Phone: 787-672-0670

Areas of interest: Health Disparities Clinical Research, Prevention Services Research, Implementation Research and Intervention Efforts in Topics such as: HIV, Gender issues, Violence, Sexuality, Mental Health, Asthma, and Obesity.

 

 

Jerrold S. Meyer, PhD – Stress Biomarkers/Hair Cortisol Laboratory

Research Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Neuroscience & Behavior Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 441 Tobin Hall Amherst, MA 01003

Email: jmeyer@psych.umass.edu

Phone: 413-545-2168

Areas of interest: Accumulation of the stress hormone cortisol in growing hair and nails as a biomarker of long-term activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and its responsiveness to chronic stress both in adulthood and during early development.

Andrea Lopez-Cepero, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

Email: andrea.a.lopez-cepero@emory.edu

Areas of Interest: Behavior and Health, Cardiometabolic Diseases, Health Disparities, Nutrition, Social Determinants of Health

 

Jose Ordovas

Senior Scientist, Nutrition and Genomics Team, Professor, Nutrition and Genetics, Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University

Email: jose.ordovas@tufts.edu

Areas of Interest: Molecular Biology, Nutrition, Genetics, Lipoproteins and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

 

Mayra Estrella, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in Brownsville

Areas of Interest: Hispanics, Latinos, Psychosocial Factors, Allostatic Load, Cognitive Reserve and Resilience

 

Collaborators from former partnerships:

 

Charmaine Alfonso, RD, EdD– Nutritionist

College of Nutritionists and Dietitians of Puerto Rico. 1430 Portales de Altamesa 2303, San Alfonso Street, San Juan PR

Email: charmainealfonso70@gmail.com

Phone: 787-644-8210

Areas of interest: Nutrition, Data Analysis

 

Patrick Vinck, PhD – Natural Disaster Response

Research Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Assistant Professor, Global Health and Population, Harvard Chan School of Public Health; Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Lead Investigator at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. 14 Story Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Email: pvinck@hsph.harvard.edu

Phone: 617-384-8368

Areas of interest: Resilience to Disasters, Conflict and Health, and Technology and the Ethics of Data

 

Research Assistants

Darwin D. Rugg Ramos, BA

Camila Maldonado Cintrón, BS in process

Francheska Carrasquillo Díaz, MA

Jorge Villares González, BA

Keziah Valles Torres, BA

Kiara Vega-Bellido, BS

Naomi Y. Pérez García, BA

Nayaret Hernández De Jesus, BA

Orlando Román Marrero, MA

Rafael Calderón Pérez, BS in process

Stephanie Maldonado Silva, BS in process

Valeria Pérez Rosado, BS in process