Biography & Research:
Professor of Neuroscience and Human Genetics and the Director of the Rio Grande Valley Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (AD-RCMAR) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. Professor Emerita at the University of Zulia at Venezuela. She received her M.D. from the University of Zulia in Venezuela and her M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University, and post-doctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She leads the Maracaibo Aging Study as principal investigator since 1998. This is a longitudinal population-based study of dementia and other age-related health problems that has followed more than 2,500 subjects since its inception and has provided important insights about the aging of Latinos. Recipient of numerous awards, and recognized author, the focus of her research is to advance age-related conditions that disproportionately affect Latinos, at the intersection of biomedical, social and behavioral, and implementation sciences.