Ana Abraído-Lanza is an American behavioral psychologist who is a professor at the New York University. Her research considers the cultural and structural factors that impact mental and physical health amongst Latino communities. She serves as Vice Dean of the School of Public Health.

Early life and education

Abraído-Lanza was an undergraduate student in psychology at New York University. She moved to the Graduate Center of the City University of New York for graduate studies, where she earned a master's degree and doctorate. Her doctoral research considered the social role identity, support and psychological wellbeing amongst Hispanic women.^[1] After graduating, Abraído-Lanza joined the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where she worked as a postdoctoral scholar in Medical Epidemiology.

Research and career

Abraído-Lanza was appointed Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and oversaw the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD), which looked to increase the number of people from historically underrepresented groups studying medicine. The program launched a doctoral training scheme in 2008.^[2] At Columbia, she was selected as a Provost Leadership Fellow.^[3]

Abraído-Lanza joined the New York University School of Public Health in 2018.^[4] Her research considers the cultural and structural factors that impact mental and physical health amongst Latino communities, including the Latino mortality paradox^[3] - despite their socioeconomic status, Latino people have lower mortality rates than non-Latino white people.^[2] Unlike the majority of public health frameworks, Abraído-Lanza considers the positive aspects of culture that give rise to these lower mortality rates.^[2] She has shown that structural racism, in particular conditional citizenship and subjective sense of belonging, impacts the health and wellbeing of immigrants.^[5]

Awards and honors

• 2008 Dalmas A. Taylor Distinguished Contributions Award^[6]
• 2013 Provost Leadership Fellow^[7]

Selected publications

• Ana F Abraído-Lanza; Adria N Armbrister; Karen R Flórez; Alejandra N Aguirre (29 June 2006). "Toward a theory-driven model of acculturation in public health research". American Journal of Public Health. 96 (8): 1342–1346. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.064980. ISSN 1541-0048. PMC 1522104. PMID 16809597. Wikidata Q79816132.
• Ana Abraido-Lanza; B P Dohrenwend; D S Ng-Mak; J B Turner (1 October 1999). "The Latino mortality paradox: a test of the "salmon bias" and healthy migrant hypotheses". American Journal of Public Health. 89 (10): 1543–1548. doi:10.2105/AJPH.89.10.1543. ISSN 1541-0048. PMC 1508801. PMID 10511837. Wikidata Q24551250.
• Ana Abraido-Lanza; Maria T Chao; Karen R Flórez (3 March 2005). "Do healthy behaviors decline with greater acculturation? Implications for the Latino mortality paradox". Social Science & Medicine. 61 (6): 1243–1255. doi:10.1016/J.SOCSCIMED.2005.01.016. ISSN 0277-9536. PMC 3587355. PMID 15970234. Wikidata Q24612359.

References