UC Davis experts: Latino health and education

The UC Davis faculty has a broad expertise regarding Mexico-U.S. issues. Spanish-language media members, please note that all on the list are fluent Spanish speakers. If you need information on a topic not listed, please contact Claudia Morain at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu or Pat Bailey, News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu, or Julia Ann Easley, News Service, (530) 8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu..

Health

• Border health-care issues
• Latino mental health
• Latina health
• Latino nutrition
• Childhood malnutrition

Education

• Special education efforts

HEALTH

Border health-care issues

Adela de la Torre , director and professor of Chicana/o Studies Program, studies health-care access and finance issues that affect the Latino community as well as border health issues. From 1996-2002, De la Torre was director of the Mexican American Studies and Research Center at the University of Arizona where she developed and directed the Border Academy, a summer institute that explored issues unique to the U.S.-Mexico border. An economist, De la Torre is the author of "Sana, Sana: Mexican Americans and Health"; and "Moving from the Margins: A Chicana’s View of Public Policy." Contact: Adela de la Torre (fluent in Spanish), Chicana/o Studies, (530) 752-3904, adelatorre@ucdavis.edu.

Latino mental health

Yvette G. Flores, associate professor of Chicana/o Studies Program, can talk about the gamut of Latino mental health issues, including adolescence, aging, violence, self-esteem, AIDS prevention, substance abuse and sexuality. A clinical psychologist, Flores-Ortiz has studied eating disorders among Mexican American women and conflict among married couples, among other community mental health issues. Contact: Yvette Flores-Ortiz (fluent in Spanish), Chicana/o Studies, cell phone (510) 812-3030, ygfloresortiz@ucdavis.edu.

Latina health

A public health epidemiologist, Lorena Garcia is an expert in disease and health patterns in Latinas. She can talk about how diabetes, obesity and cancer are some of the worst diseases affecting Latinas in the United States. Garcia, an assistant profoessor in the Chicana/o Studies Program at UC Davis, has also researched domestic violence among Latinos, working with the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center. In particular, Garcia can talk about her findings that domestic violence for Latina women worsen when they immigrate to the United States. Contact: Lorena Garcia (fluent in Spanish), Chicana/o Studies, (530) 752-2428, lgarcia@ucdavis.edu.

Latino nutrition

UC Davis community nutrition specialist Lucia Kaiser can talk about how Latinos have changed their eating patterns in the United States and the nutritional effects of the new diet. She also is an expert on nutrition; the impact of acculturation and food insecurity among Latinos on household food supplies and food patterns; cultural beliefs regarding diabetes; and child feeding strategies. Contact: Lucia Kaiser (fluent in Spanish), Nutrition, (530) 754-9063, llkaiser@ucdavis.edu.

Childhood malnutrition

Kenneth Brown's research program focuses on the causes, complications, treatment and prevention of childhood malnutrition in low-income countries. A physician as well as a nutrition expert, Dr. Brown directs the UC Davis Program in International Nutrition. He can talk about issues of child feeding (breast feeding and complementary feeding), relationships between infection and nutrition, and specific nutrient deficiencies. He is conducting research in those subjects in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Bangladesh and Nepal. He currently chairs the International Zinc Consultative Group and is a former member of the Committee on International Nutrition of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and past president of the Society for International Nutrition Research. He has received the International Award for Modern Nutrition and the Kellogg International Nutrition Research Prize. Contact: Kenneth Brown (fluent in Spanish), Nutrition, (530) 752-1992, khbrown@ucdavis.edu.

EDUCATION

Special education efforts

Richard Figueroa, a professor of education at UC Davis who focuses on bilingual special education. If bilingual education is eliminated from California's public schools, he says, many children will be wrongly diagnosed as mildly retarded or learning disabled simply because they don't speak English well enough. Figueroa, co-author of the book "Bilingualism and Testing: A Special Case of Bias," advises the Los Angeles Unified School District on how to provide special education for children who are from Hispanic and potentially bilingual families. Contact: Richard Figueroa (fluent in Spanish), Education, (530) 752-6293, rafigueroa@ucdavis.edu.

Media contacts:

• Claudia Morain, News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu
• Pat Bailey, News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu
• Julia Ann Easley, News Service, (530) 8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu

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