Catalina Lopez-Quintero,

Dr. Catalina Lopez-Quintero is an assistant professor at the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Florida. Dr. Lopez-Quintero is a Colombian medical doctor with a Ph.D. in public health and post-graduate training and research experience in drug dependence and psychiatric epidemiology, drug use neuropsychology, and drug use and HIV/AIDS disparities. Dr. Lopez-Quintero’s research has focused on disentangling the role that factors at different levels of influence (e.g., biological, behavioral, socio-cultural, or political) play on the transitions from the early stages of drug use involvement to the development of drug use disorders and other related outcomes. Through her current federally funded research, she aims to develop a comprehensive and interdisciplinary insight of the mechanisms that generate and sustain disparities in drug use transitions and trajectories by focusing on the complex interactions between neuropsychological and socio-cultural, and systemic level factors and accordingly contribute to informing the design of effective drug use prevention and treatment strategies.

Dr. Lopez-Quintero has been the Lead Instructor of PHC 6001: Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health (Fall, 2019-2021), Public Health Concepts (Summer and Fall, 2018) and Epidemiology Methods II (Summer 2022-2023). She has been an invited lecturer for other five courses in the college, such as PHC 6003: Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases and Disability or PHC 6441 – Understanding Health Disparities in the United States. In addition to her teaching and research activities, she has served as a chair, co-chair, or member of 18 students’ Ph.D. dissertation, master theses, or honor students’ thesis committees. In her weekly lab meetings, she also advises students and fellows at all levels (undergraduate to post-doctoral level) for their independent studies, career development, and research projects for the UF-Choice’s study, the medical cannabis study group, and the All of Us Consortium of CTSI Community Engagement Programs. The mentee’s projects focus on health disparities, substance, mental health, COVID-19, cancer disparities, and chronic diseases, and the main findings have been disseminated through presentations at scientific meetings or scientific publications. Dr. Lopez-Quintero regularly participates in other multiple mentoring activities, including the UF MD/Ph.D. program, NIDA T32 – UF Substance Abuse Training Center in Public Health, the UF Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP), the UF Center for Addiction Research and Education, the Early Career Leadership Committee Meeting on mentorship at the National Hispanic Science Network, the peer-mentoring program for the NIH enhanced Interdisciplinary Training Institute (eIRTI) and the NIDA Summer Research Internship Program.

Dr. Lopez-Quintero’s research has focused on disentangling the role that factors at different levels of influence (e.g., biological, behavioral, socio-cultural, or political) play on the transitions from the early stages of drug use involvement to the development of drug use disorders and other behavioral and mental health outcomes. In her current research she aims to develop a comprehensive and interdisciplinary insight of the mechanisms that generate and sustain disparities in drug use transitions and trajectories by examining the complex interactions between drug use and neuropsychological processes, socio-cultural factors, and systemic level factors. Through her research Dr. Lopez-Quintero aims to contribute to inform the design of effective and developmentally appropriate drug use prevention and treatment interventions, as well as public health policy.

• Alcohol and substance use
• Behavioral epidemiology
• Biopsychosocial Risk Factors to Cognitive Decline
• Community Psychiatry
• Health disparities and vulnerable populations