Kasim Ortiz is a third year doctoral student in the Sociology & Criminology department at the University of New Mexico. Kasim is actively involved in UNM’s Institute for the Study of “Race” & Social Justice, the NIH-funded Engaged for Equity project, as well as the NIH-funded Transdisciplinary Research, Equity & Engagement Center for Advancing Behavioral Health. Kasim’s research interests include utilizing a social determinants of health perspective to understand how ethnoracial and socioeconomic stratification contributes to health inequities. In assessing contextual determinants of health, Kasim draws upon sociological concepts of neighborhood dynamics and mass incarceration as a lens for understanding ethnoracial and socioeconomic stratification. Most of his population research has assessed substance use behaviors.
