The Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (PRC) and Center of Excellence on Health Disparities (CEHD) Welcome Natalie Hernandez, PhD, MPH

 

 

 

Natalie HernandezThe Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (PRC) and Center of Excellence on Health Disparities (CEHD) are pleased to welcome Natalie Hernandez, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine. She is also a postdoctoral fellow, who engages in community-based participatory research (CBPR) scholarly activities of the centers.

 

Dr. Hernandez’s research interests are sexual and reproductive health disparities among ethnoracial minority women, social determinants of health, and health policy. Dr. Hernandez is also a former Satcher Health Policy Leadership Fellow.  Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Hernandez conducted CBPR and held leadership positions in a number of coalitions dedicated to advancing health equity. In addition to supporting community health promotion, education, and advocacy; she also provided technical assistance to support the provision of high quality culturally relevant, sensitive, and linguistically appropriate health care and prevention services.

 

Dr. Hernandez’s expertise includes the health status and health needs of Latinos, promotores de salud (community lay health educators), HPV and cervical cancer among Latinas and other ethnoracial minorities, family planning, and health advocacy. She has published and presented her work at various international, national, state, and local conferences and published in peer-review journals. Dr. Hernandez is a guest editor for a special issue of the journal BioMed Research International. This issue will focus on the epidemiology of adverse birth outcomes particularly on emerging genetic/epigenetic, biomedical and statistical methodologies.

 

The experience Dr. Hernandez brings makes her a welcome addition to both centers, where she will be mentored as she builds her health disparities research and health equity research portfolio. The CEHD Community Engagement Core, led by the PRC and with guidance from its community led coalition board provides funded research projects with guidance to ensure community-engagement at every stage of research. For more information regarding the PRC and CEHD, please visit msm.edu.