University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus
Dr. Andrea López-Cepero is a population health researcher dedicated to the prevention of chronic diseases, including cancer, among Hispanic populations. Her work applies a biopsychosocial approach to understand how stress influences health through behavioral and physiological pathways, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel intervention targets to reduce disease risk and advance health equity.
Her current research examines stress-related eating behaviors among Hispanic adults in the U.S. and Puerto Rico and their associations with psychosocial stressors and biomarkers of chronic disease. She also investigates resilience factors that may buffer the effects of stress on eating behaviors and overall health. Most recently, Dr. López-Cepero has begun testing innovative stress-reduction strategies through behavioral interventions aimed at improving resilience, the stress response, and cardiometabolic markers.
Dr. López-Cepero is a strong advocate for health equity, and for this she has been recognized as one of the El Mundo Boston Latino 30 under 30, an NIH Health Disparities Research Institute Scholar, and an NHLBI PRIDE-CVD Scholar.