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Karen R. Florez, DrPh, MPH
Karen Florez, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences, City University of New York, Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and Full Behavioral and Social Scientist at RAND Corporation, received a Doctorate of Philosophy and a Master of Public Health from the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York City, NY. Dr. Florez, a bilingual (Spanish-English) researcher, is interested in exploring sociocultural factors affecting the health of vulnerable populations and has focused on the acculturation and fatalism among various immigrant Latino communities.
COHORT
2013-14
Project
“Do neighborhood characteristics predict health outcomes among older low-income African Americans?” Dr. Florez’ RCMAR/CHIME-funded project addressed the gap between the dearth of research on older racial/ethnic minority adults and the mechanisms by which neighborhood-level environments uniquely affect individual health at later stages in life. In this project, she assessed the relationship between neighborhood factors/characteristics associated with health among older adults and examined the extent to which age modifies any observed associations between neighborhood environment with dietary quality, physical activity and depression.
Publications
Flórez KR, Ghosh-Dastidar MB, Beckman R, de la Haye K, Duru OK, Abraído-Lanza AF, Dubowitz T. The Power of Place: Social Network Characteristics, Perceived Neighborhood Features, and Psychological Distress Among African Americans in the Historic Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Am J Community Psychol. 2016 Sep 9. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12086. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 27612324.