Dr. Rodríguez directs the Dell Center for Place-Based Initiatives and is Associate Professor of Population Health at the Dell Medical School, University of Texas, Austin, where she works on community-engaged research and practice projects. Previously, as Program Officer at the New York State Health Foundation, she supported neighborhood-level interventions to increase healthy food options and improve the built environment; advance public policies that promote healthy living; and increase access to resources and programs that address social determinants of health. As associate director of community partnerships for the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative at City Harvest, she oversaw community engagement activities to help address diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other diet-related diseases in low-income neighborhoods of New York City. From 2004–2012, she co-directed the Urbanism and the Built Environment track in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She co-edited a book examining community mobilization for health, and authored publications on the subjects of violence prevention, health of vulnerable populations, mental health, community mobilization, and active living. Dr. Rodríguez received a BS in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, an MPH from the University of Connecticut, and a DrPH from Columbia University.
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