Nineteen percent of Brooklyn's population identifies as Hispanic, as do twenty-nine percent of residents in New York City. From September 15th to October 15th, we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to honor the cultures and contributions of Americans from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

"When we are in these types of communities, we are willing to turn around and help the person behind you."

Can you talk about your research focus in your own words?  

All the research that I do focuses on disease prevention and on racial and ethnic health disparities...I started with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and I wanted to work my way through how can we prevent it. I went through basically the life course perspective. I worked on studies with adolescents, with daycares, with mother and baby.  

I've really gotten very comfortable with the mother/baby prevention model because there's so much there I feel like we can do. It's understudied. The mother/baby relationship just gives us so much insight into how intergenerational health is important...We start to see some of those risk factors at birth.  

You are the president of the APHA Latino Caucus for Public Health. Can you tell us a little bit about what this role entails and what it has meant to you? 

When the opportunity became available to run for president of the Latino Caucus, at first I was like, oh, this was on my vision board, but I didn't really realize this would become an opportunity for me. But I really took on this endeavor just like I take on anything else: if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right. I put down what I wanted for the Latino Caucus. 

A few things I manifested. I wanted an article in The Nation, which is the APHA's newspaper. I wanted a 50th year anniversary gala—we really wanted to make it a big deal...And then, of course, I really wanted a special issue for the American Journal for Public Health.  

And we made all of those things happen! I feel really good about the things we've been able to accomplish. Looking forward, now I'm in my second term, and my big goals are representation and policy. When I say representation, I know that we're lacking in representation in APHA outside of the Latino Caucus. We need Latinos in the executive board, we need Latinos to be recognized in awards, and policies. We want to put our money where our mouth is, make sure that we're writing policies that are meaningful and that can be really well-used for eventual legislature.  

Can you tell us more about the special issue published in the AJPH?  

The American Journal of Public Health has created a special issue and it's out now. 

We wanted to get the most cutting-edge research, policy thought pieces, things like that. But other things we talked about were like, wouldn't it be great if we had Spanish translations? Wouldn't it be great if this was an open-access issue? Those were important. We wanted representation from our community. We wanted our authors to be Latino. We wanted them to range across the career span. We wanted the cover to be represented by a Latino artist. And those were all challenges, but we got them all! 

I think this is probably a highlight of my career. To be the guest editor on this special issue is just so meaningful. It was by us, for us. Even the title, Pa'Lante, was something we were very passionate about. That's a fight cry for us. We're moving forward, we are not looking back. This is from us. 

What is the importance of having mentorship and research programs that work to support systematically minoritized backgrounds? 

Three percent of public health faculty is Latino. Five percent of NIH-funded investigators are Latino. Six percent of physicians are Latino. We make up twenty percent of the population. That is wild. When we're talking about healthcare, we need culturally-competent physicians...It can't be underemphasized.  

The majority of first-generation students are Latino. We need help. I'm going through this, and I have no one in my family, my friend group, nothing to ask them. Is this normal? Should I be negotiating for more? Am I doing things right? I don't have anyone outside of the Latino Caucus that I can ask those questions to. So it's so helpful to be able to go to this network of people. These people know my heart, my work. They see it. They're witness to it.  

Do you have any advice for students or professionals who are looking to address health equity in their careers?  



This is kind of a tough one. I want to be able to say, Find something like the Latino Caucus. But that's not always going to exist. So I would suggest looking for organizations that you feel akin to for whatever reason. Number one, people in those types of organizations mostly are going to feel like they owe the next generation something. I can say that because I've had experiences with established Latino scholars inside and outside the Latino Caucus, and the difference is stark. When we are in these types of communities, we are willing to turn around and help the next person behind you. And those are organizations that are hard to come by, but when you find a space in them, it's meaningful.  

Why I say it's hard for me to say that is because I know that minorities are taxed disproportionately with mentoring students that look like us, talk like us, think like us. It's not always like that. I don't want to burden minority researchers more by saying that you need to help the next generation. But unfortunately, it does come down to us.  

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"One of the most important things that programs like TRANSPORT and PRIDE bring is this underlying important value of mentorship."

Can you explain your research focus?  

My research generally focuses on the idea of health equity, particularly the idea of uplifting folks who are often overlooked by other research.

The study that actually brought me to SUNY Downstate, working with Dr. Sabina Hirshfield, was a mobile health intervention study seeking to improve HIV medication adherence among sexual minoritized men living with HIV who use stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine.

My ongoing work has really built off of that. For example, I had a small pilot study that was funded by the Center for Drug Research and HIV/HCV Research at NYU specifically looking at substance use treatment utilization among Hispanic and Latinx sexually minoritized men who use methamphetamine in particular. But I'm also really moving forward in the direction of HIV prevention as well among that same population. 

What else does studying substance use and HIV-related risk behavior tell us when it comes to health equity amongst sexual and ethnic minorities?

There's a lot of work that has shown that disparities exist...We don't really dive as much into what is underscoring those disparities, how can we help to reduce them, what programs might work to really break down the differences that exist within these populations. 

What we've seen in the last five to ten years is wonderfully a decrease in the new HIV diagnoses among White sexual minoritized men and among Black sexual minoritized men. But what we're not seeing is a reduction among Hispanic and Latinx sexual minoritized men. It's actually remained stable. 

So we're sort of leaving this population on the table while we're making such wonderful advances among other populations. But do we really understand what is preventing them from reaching that same level of reduction in new diagnoses? I don't think we do just yet. So I think it's fundamentally important that if you care about health equity, that you understand that sexual minoritized populations, particularly those of color, particularly Hispanic and Latinx sexual minoritized men really need to be at the forefront of our conversation.  

How has being a PRIDE scholar influenced your research?  

I'm incredibly thankful for the support I have received through TRANSPORT and more recently through PRIDE. Without TRANSPORT, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be at SUNY Downstate anymore...TRANSPORT itself as a sort of all-encompassing program has really been fundamental to my successes here at Downstate.  

PRIDE itself, moving into PRIDE as a junior faculty member, it's sort of the same story. I don't think I'd have the title that I have right now if it were not for PRIDE supporting me. Even just getting the chance to sit in on the PRIDE seminars during the summer was really eye-opening and a really great way to engage with other junior researchers and feel like I could mentor somebody who was in a similar stage in my career—because I had seen some of the hurdles they were encountering. It felt like I could give back in some way and it was a really nice experience to build a little bit of that self-efficacy as a junior researcher. 

What advice do you have for either students or professionals who are seeking to address health equity in this work?  

When I think about my interest in health equity and finding a way to do something about health equity—understand it, find ways to pursue it, find ways to break down some disparities that exist—what I always come back to is finding your niche and finding your passion. We all have different skills. But also it's really, What can you bring to a team? We very rarely do research alone. So how can we help to build a comprehensive team?  

I think the easiest or the most fundamentally important aspects are things like data analysis skills. If you can find mentors that can help to bring those skills into your sphere, or if it's part of an educational program that you're in. Really gravitate toward understanding how to look at numbers, how to talk to people, how to synthesize those two, which is much more complex. This will carry people so far in their pursuit of understanding health equity.  

Anything that we haven't covered that you want to talk about?  

One of the most important things that programs like TRANSPORT and PRIDE bring is this underlying important value of mentorship. It's actually one of the things that I'm interested in--not only helping mentees thrive but also finding the ways to build those capacities within mentors to then help those mentees thrive. And I think there's a real important gap in how we mentor. The only way I learned how to mentor was by watching my mentors and learning what not to do and what to do. So I think that's a fundamentally important piece.  

Another piece of advice for mentees, for example, is to find ways to "mentor up." The more that you can communicate your needs to a mentor and identify if a mentor is good for you, the better it is for you in the long run. 

But it's important to find ways to develop that self-efficacy to push for what it is that you need as a junior researcher, as an early-career student. And of course programs like PRIDE and TRANSPORT and phenomenal ways to pursue that as a researcher. It's important to talk to folks who have been doing this to get a sense of how you can find your path forward in ways that do justice to you and what it is that your goals are. 

See Dr. Diaz's recent publication, "Challenges and Opportunities with at-Home Blood Collection for HIV-1 Viral Load Monitoring among Sexual Minoritized Men who use Stimulants," below!

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. Check out the full transcript below!

See Dr. Camacho-Rivera's recent publication, "Sociocultural and masculinity influences on colorectal cancer screening participation among Hispanic/Latino men in Florida, New York, and Texas," below!

Please join us on January 17th, 2025 at the SUNY Global Center for SUNY Downstate's 1st Annual Mentorship Symposium, "Advancing the Science & Practice of Mentorship in Biomedical, Behavioral, and Clinical Research."