Editor's Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2014 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply now for the 2015 Èxito! program. Vanessa Estrada
San Antonio, Texas Growing up in Texas with a family that whipped up delicious foods like chili using the stone molcajete, Vanessa Estrada knows the value of food in the Latino culture. And she knows that food needs to be tasty and nutritious. She wanted to bring that knowledge to others, so she became a registered dietician and earned a bachelor’s degree in community health education from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and a master’s degree in nutrition from the University of the Incarnate Word. She now teaches nutrition education seminars San Antonio as an adjunct faculty at UTSA and across ...
Arely Perez loves to step outside her comfort zone. In college, she studied and enjoyed kinesiology—the study of human movement—but wasn’t as familiar with how it translated to the health of the community. So, as a graduate student at UT San Antonio, she got jobs in the labs of Drs. Meizi He and Zenong Yin, where she learned all about public health and coordinated studies of local programs to improve nutrition and reduce obesity in child care centers. “I became passionate about improving people’s health, thanks to both Drs. He and Yin, who gave me great opportunities to expand my knowledge and skills,” Perez said. Today Perez is applying her passion for health as a researcher at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San ...
Dr. Isabel Scarinci, a cancer prevention expert at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, spoke about ways to improve cervical cancer prevention on March 17, 2011, at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) in San Antonio as part of the SALSI/CTRC Health Disparities Lecture Series. Scarinci's talk highlighted her innovative work in cervical cancer prevention among low-income, Latina and African American, and immigrant women. Watch video of her talk here. The SALSI/CTRC Health Disparities Lecture Series, sponsored by the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) and the CTRC, brings some of the top U.S. health disparities experts to San Antonio to offer the latest trends, tools and advancements in the fight against cancer health disparities. The series is a joint project of the ...
Dr. Rena Pasick, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, spoke about mixed methods of cancer health disparities research during a recent speech that was part of the new San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) and Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) Distinguished Health Disparities Lecture Series. Dr. Pasick, a well-established population-based cancer control researcher, conducts community- and clinic-based intervention studies to increase the use of and access to breast and cervical cancer screening among ethnically diverse and underserved communities. She also developed a training program to encourage minority students and professionals to pursue doctoral degrees in cancer research. Watch Dr. Pasick's lecture here. The lecture series, coordinated by ...
The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and UT San Antonio are teaming up to launch the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) Distinguished Health Disparities Lecture Series, which will periodically bring some of the top U.S. health disparities experts to San Antonio to offer the latest trends, tools and advancements in the fight against cancer health disparities among the underserved. The series starts Oct. 20 and runs until August 2011. The series will feature speakers who can enhance the knowledge and abilities of local doctors and researchers, who then can apply learned techniques and strategies in their labs, clinics and communities. South Texas residents, particularly Hispanics/Latinos, experience many health disparities—the disproportionately higher incidence and ...
