Meet Adelphi’s Hispanic Faculty Members

An associate professor of sociology, Dr. Burgos researches how racism, discrimination and place-based inequalities impact the life chances of racialized minorities. Using a theoretical framework that he has developed and tested over the last decade, he is currently interested in examining how residential segregation and income inequality across neighborhoods and counties affect the likelihood that individuals will be victims of interracial and intra-racial homicides in New York City. In Oakland, California, he is examining whether neighborhoods with higher air pollution concentrations translate into higher rates of segregation and poorer health. He has also just completed a large-scale study of segregation patterns in New Jersey among Latinos, where, after decreases in segregation during the years 1980 through 2010, segregation levels are now rising.

A professor of psychology in the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Dr. Fuertes is editor of The Other Side of Psychotherapy: Understanding Clients’ Experiences and Contributions in Treatment, published by the American Psychological Association (2022). Dr. Fuertes’ research has concentrated on the importance of the physician-patient working alliance in medical care, on how the therapy relationship works in psychotherapy, and on multiculturalism (including sexual orientation) in therapy.

An associate professor in the Ruth S. Ammon College of Education and Health Sciences, Dr. Kogan was born and raised in Mexico City and earned her bachelor’s degree in Mexico. She has been a member of the Adelphi community for the past 25 years. Currently, she is director of the Scholar-Teacher Education Program (STEP) and the field experience supervision coordinator at the Ammon College. She is also one of the pedagogical co-founders of the Speyer School, an independent, coeducational K-8 school in New York City, established to meet the needs of gifted students. Her research interest centers around gifted education, particularly gifted bilingual education. She has worked as a teacher trainer, program developer and educational consultant in the United States and Mexico. In addition, she is involved in Adelphi’s service-learning study abroad trips to Kenya, Africa.

An associate professor and director of the MPH program at the College of Nursing and Public Health, Dr. Martin earned her MD at Complutense University, Madrid, in 1980. She has done considerable research on Hispanic and underserved populations. Her research focus includes health inequalities in vulnerable populations, with a special focus on Hispanic and Haitian communities. She is also conducting collaborative research in Spain and Ecuador. This year, she co-authored an assessment of the impact of formal and informal messages about COVID-19 on the knowledge and practices for prevention and control among rural and urban communities in Ecuador, published in the International Journal of Population Studies. Last year, she co-authored an article on perceptions, awareness and barriers to care regarding obesity and diabetes among Latinx communities in Florida, a qualitative geographical comparative study published in the Journal of Global Health Reports.

Morales-Hernandez, who earned master’s degree in applied mathematics in 2014 at the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes in Mexico and a master’s in mathematical sciences at Clemson University in 2015, is a lecturer in mathematics and computer science at Adelphi’s College of Arts and Sciences. Her areas of interest are numerical analysis, statistics, math education and the history of mathematics. In addition, she is an advocate for diversity and inclusivity in STEM fields, actively encouraging underrepresented groups to pursue careers in mathematics. She is on several Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) committees, including the EvenQuads Committee, which received the 2022 AWM Service Award “for their role … in promoting women’s accomplishments in mathematics for the purpose of inspiring and encouraging future generations of mathematicians.” In her spare time, she collects data related to the band BTS and performs analyses to offer insight into how statistics and data analytics can be applied to K-pop (Korean popular music).

An associate professor of sociology and director of the Latin American Studies/Latinx Studies program, Dr. Olvera said her expertise lies in the areas of urban inequality, migration and social policy. She has researched issues such as neighborhood change, low-income communities and immigration, using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Her research has been published in journals including The International Journal of Urban Sciences, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, City & Community, Sociology Compass, and the Journal of Poverty. Her most recent project is a qualitative study of the informal livelihood strategies of indigenous migrant women in Harlem in New York City.

An assistant professor of biology, Dr. Prado-Oviedo strives to bring together various research disciplines—for example, behavior, endocrinology, genomics and proteomics—to better understand the unique physiological parameters of endangered species. She has conducted exhaustive research on nearly every zoo elephant facility in the nation. The research by her multidisciplinary team has resulted in guidelines that zoos can use to update facilities and optimize the welcome of elephants.

Dr. Rosario-Gonzalez, who received her PhD in 2020 from SUNY Binghamton University, Decker School of Nursing, is an assistant professor with the College of Nursing and Public Health. Throughout her nursing career, she has worked in the acute care setting and served as a clinical coordinator and instructor. She assisted in the research and was on the Strategic Advisory Committee for the Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN) Grant sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation since 2012. She organized four short-term study abroad trips for nursing students to Africa and the Dominican Republic and led two of the trips. She belongs to the Health and Safety Team for Honor Flight Syracuse, which honors veterans by flying them to Washington D.C., to visit memorials. She contributed to Nurse as Educator (6th and 7th edition) and Essentials of Patient Education (2nd edition) and has published five articles in nursing journals.

Dr. Simon-Alegre, who earned her doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Spain, is an assistant professor in the African, Black and Caribbean Studies program whose courses include Food, Movies and Texts in the Afro-Latinx World, From Tierra del Fuego to Pyrenees: Transatlantic Visual Culture, and Gender, Race, Film and the U.S. in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). She received the Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching of Social Justice, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (2022–2023). A member of Adelphi’s Hispanic-Serving Task Force, she does research on such topics as the Global Hispanophone and 19th-Century Iberian and Latin American literatures and cultures. Among her notable publications are Concepción Gimeno de Flaquer (1850–1919): Her Personal Letters, Short Stories, and Journalism (Vernon 2023) and Queer Women in Modern Spanish Literature: Activism, Sexuality, the Otherness of the ‘Chicas Raras’ (Routledge 2022). In addition, she is president of Feministas Unidas and the editor of the peer-reviewed journal Ámbitos Feministas.

Born in Spain, Dr. Villa-Cuesta is a biology professor whose teaching is based on the idea that we learn best when we work with others to actively engage hands-on in the process of learning. Her research and scholarship focus is twofold. “On the one hand,” she said, “I have a laboratory that concentrates on the role of mitochondria—organelles in our cells that provide 90 percent of the energy that we need, in health and diseases.” In addition, “I work collaboratively with faculty and administration in two- and four-year colleges in the Long Island-New York City area to promote and study the pivotal role of faculty on sustainable transformation of higher education,” she added. The professor has also taken improv training to enliven her lessons.