Larissa Avilés-Santa, MD, MPH, FACP, FACE After earning her medical degree in 1992 from the University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine, Dr. Mainés Larissa Avilés-Santa, initiated her residency training in Internal Medicine at the University Hospital in San Juan, which she completed in 1995. Following her residency, she moved to Texas to pursue subspecialty training in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. After finishing her fellowship, she joined the faculty of the Endocrine division in Dallas, working very closely to Dr. Philip Raskin. There she worked in clinical research, teaching and direct patient care. Her main research interest is the prevention of cardiovascular disease in Latinos with Type 2 diabetes. She also earned a Masters in Public Health at the University of Texas’ School of Public Health. In 2006, Dr. Avilés-Santa joined the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and is currently the Project Officer for the Hispanic Community Health Study - Study of Latinos, which was initiated on October 1, 2006.
Robert Kaplan, Ph.D., is a cardiovascular disease epidemiologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Kaplan is the principal investigator of the Bronx Field Center of the NIH Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Dr. Kaplan also is an investigator and Steering Committee member with the NIH Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), an ongoing study initiated in 1989 that examines the epidemiology of coronary disease and stroke among 65+ year old adults living in four US communities. In addition, Dr. Kaplan has an interest in studying the effects of long-term HIV infection and HIV medication use on risk of heart and vascular diseases.
Neil Schneiderman, Ph.D., is James L. Knight Professor of Psychology, Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami. Dr. Schneiderman is the principal investigator (PI) of the Miami Field Center of the NIH Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. He is the principal investigator of an NHLBI Program Project examining “Biobehavioral Bases of CHD Risk and Management,” primarily in low socioeconomic status and ethnic minority individuals. Also, he is the principal investigator of two NIH T32 training grants involving “Biopsychosocial Research Training in Immunology and AIDS” (NIMH) and “Behavioral Medicine Approaches to Cardiovascular Disease (NHLBI).
