FOCUS
Ana Laura Herrera’s research focuses on the social, environmental, and personal influences on youth behaviors, particularly those relating to obesity and tobacco prevention. In pursuing a doctoral degree, she aspires to refine her research skills and learn how to develop, implement, and evaluate effective programs and policies to help eliminate health disparities. She believes that her research on the social determinants of health can provide a practical guidance for policies and add meaning and credibility to ethical and economic arguments needed to act, not only to ameliorate the adverse health consequences, but also to reduce social disadvantage itself, as health should not be a privilege for some, but a right for all.
MORE ABOUT ANA
Ana Laura Herrera is a first-generation student originally from Compton, California. Currently, she is a PhD student in Health Behavior and Health Education at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her MPH in Health Promotion and Behavioral Science from The University of Texas School of Public Health-Austin Regional Campus. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Chicano & Latino Studies from California State University, Long Beach. For the past nine years she served with numerous nonprofit health organizations to gain first-hand experience about the problems that plague medically underserved communities. Through these experiences and her formal education, she learned that the public health approach provides a framework to investigate and understand the causes and consequences of disease. Therefore, she decided to further her education and pursue a career in public health.’
DISSERTATION GRANT AWARDEE — MAY 2019
The Association between Tobacco Retail Outlet Density and Advertising with Neighborhood Socio-demographic Characteristics around Colleges in Texas
The proposed research can add to existing evidence of tobacco and alternative tobacco products (ATP) marketing disparities and provide support for the development of policies that incorporate the off-campus environment in efforts to eliminate tobacco disparities and reduce tobacco use prevalence among young adults, including college students.
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