Glorisa Canino, Ph.D.

Doctor Canino is the Director of the Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, which is under the office of the Dean of Academic Affairs at the School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico. Dr. Canino holds a Master in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico and a Doctorate in Psychology from Temple University. She has been the principal investigator of several psychiatric epidemiological studies that have been carried out on the island since 1984. Presently, she is the Principal investigator of a grant designed to investigate Health Disparities among Latino and Afro-Caribbeans (p60 MD002261-01), a continuation of a former EXPORT Center (P20 MD000537). She is also the research director and a co-investigator for the Latino Research Program Project (LRPP) (Dr. Alegria is PI) which is now doing a pilot study on ethnic differences in perceived impairment and need for care (P50 MH073469-03). Dr. Canino is also the co- Principal investigator for a study on the interplay between genes and the environment in infant development (R01 HD0496685-01, Dr. Silberg co-PI), the co-Principal Investigator for a study assessing the genetics of asthma and obesity (R01 HL079966-03, Dr. Celedon co-PI) and the co-Principal investigator of an intervention for depressed Latina mothers with children with asthma (Dr. McQuaid co-PI). She was a past reviewer (1992-1997) of the peer review committee of the Psychopathology Child and Adolescent Treatment Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health and a reviewer and member of the editorial board of several scientific and peer review journals. Dr. Canino has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals in the areas of cross-cultural child and adult psychiatric epidemiology, as well as on the service utilization patterns and barriers to care faced by Latino children and adults. She has also published substantially in the area of instrument psychometrics, particularly as it relates to the adaptation and translation of instruments to the Latino culture. For the past 18 years, she has been a leading Latino researcher in the field of psychiatric epidemiology, and psychometrics after having carried out four major psychiatric epidemiologic surveys on the island of Puerto Rico and has translated and tested several diagnostic and service utilization measures. She has collaborated with several investigators in the U.S. and abroad in the analyses of data sets and in the translation and adaptation of instruments. In 2006, Dr. Canino was appointed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health Services to serve as a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council, at the National Institute of Health (NIH). In that same year (2006) she also became a member of the DSM V workgroup on Externalizing Disorders. Recently, Dr. Canino received the Rema Lapouse Award, at the APHA 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Philadelphia 2009, which is granted to outstanding scientists in the area of psychiatric epidemiology.

Email: glorisa.canino@upr.edu Phone: (787) 758-2525 Ext: 2129


Recent Publications

 

Margarita Alegria, Ph.D.

Is the Director of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research and a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alegria researches mental health services for Latinos and other ethnic populations. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the Advanced Center for Mental Health Disparities, and the Latino arm of the National Latino and Asian American Study, as well as the Co-Principal Investigator of the CHA-UPR Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training (EXPORT) Center. Her published works focus on mental health services research, conceptual and methodological issues with minority populations, risk behaviors, and disparities in service delivery. Dr. Alegria received her Ph.D. from Temple University.


Recent Publications

 

Juan C. Celedón, MD, DrPH

Dr. Celedón's primary area of research is to identify genetic factors and environmental exposure that influence the development of obstructive airway diseases (asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in general and among Hispanics in particular. Few studies of the genetics of obstructive airway diseases have included Hispanic individuals. To attempt to improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of asthma and COPD in Hispanics, Dr. Celedón currently leads three NIH-funded studies of the genetics of obstructive airway diseases in individuals of Hispanic descent. Two of these studies employ a family-based design to examine the relation between genetic factors and asthma and COPD in an isolated Hispanic population living in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, and the third study uses a case-control design to examine the relation among genes, indoor allergen exposure, and asthma phenotypes among Puerto Rican children. Genome-wide linkage analyses in eight large pedigrees of Costa Rican children with asthma have led to identification of genomic regions likely to contain asthma-susceptibility genes. Fine-mapping association analyses of asthma phenotypes in genomic regions linked to asthma (chromosome 12q24) and serum total immunoglobulin E (chromosome 20p12) are ongoing and could lead to the identification of a susceptibility gene for asthma.


Recent Publications

 

Doryliz Vila, MS

Ms. Vila has been working at the BSRI since 2004 and is its Associate Director. She has a Bachelor degree in Health Education (BS) from the Univesrity of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus and a Master degree in Health Service Research and Evaluation (MS) from the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus.

Email: doriliz.vila@upr.edu Phone: (787) 758-2525 Ext:1292


Recent Publications

 

Edna Acosta Pérez, PhD

Is a project Director of the BSRI and has been working at the institute for the last 4 years. Dr. Acosta completed a doctoral degree in Psychology in Social-Community at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, and a post-doctoral Master degree in Clinical Research at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus.
Email:edna.acosta2@upr.edu Phone: (787) 758-2525 Ext:1994


Recent Publications

 

Ligia Chavez, Ph.D

Is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Behavioral Sciences Research Institute where she has been working since 1999. Dr. Chavez earned a PhD in Social Experimental Psychology from Tulane University.

Email: ligia.chavez@upr.edu Phone: (787) 758-2525 Ext:1941





Recent Publications