Profile: A Latina’s Upbringing Helps Her Focus on Improving Latino Health, Fitness

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Unpaved roads. Lack of proper sewage. Inadequate water.

Rose A. Treviño-Whitaker grew up among these third-world conditions that plague some colonias—mostly Latino unincorporated settlements in South Texas.

That’s why she is dedicating her career to preventing disease and promoting public health as a researcher at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.

She’s particularly interested in increasing physical activity.

“Regardless of the neighborhood conditions I grew up in, I still led an active lifestyle. My sisters and I still went outside and had a great time playing soccer in the streets with the other neighborhood kids,” Treviño said. “It is hard to see that this is not the case anymore, in my old neighborhood and all over the U.S. People are not taking advantage of the benefits that an active lifestyle can provide—I want to change that.”

Treviño is project coordinator for the IHPR’s Transdisciplinary Geographical Management of Cancer Health Disparities Program (GMaP).

GMaP, funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is a cancer health disparities network of researchers, trainees, outreach workers, and organizations with clinical, behavioral, basic science and community-based backgrounds with a goal of advancing cancer health disparities research and training.

Treviño facilitates collaboration, cooperation, information- and resource-sharing, and capacity-building in the Region 4 GMaP, which included Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

“My project and job’s focus is on connecting at-risk and underrepresented communities with NCI research, training, and outreach efforts to fight disparities,” she said.

Treviño also has helped create culturally relevant educational booklets and modules, as well as manuals, such as one on clinical trials outreach for Latinos.

“I think that education is the biggest factor in determining an individual’s health,” she said. “I enjoy having that one on one contact with the community and being able to educate those that want to learn and improve their lives. I enjoy being able to provide and make available education and culturally relevant materials and tools, eliminating some of the barriers for Spanish-speaking populations.”