Cecilia Rosales

Associate Dean, Community Engagement and Outreach
Associate Dean, Phoenix Programs
Professor, College of Public Health

Cecilia Rosales, MD, MS, is associate dean and professor at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health -- Phoenix and a native Tucsonan. Dr. Rosales is currently collaborating with El Colegio de Sonora and the Secretaria de Salud de Sonora on a National Institutes of Health RO1 grant titled, Tools and practices to decrease cardiovascular disease and complications in the diabetic population of Mexico. The research project aims to test the effectiveness of certain tools and practices to decrease cardiovascular disease and complications from diabetes. The aim is to scale up the intervention to the national level.

In addition, Dr. Rosales was awarded a grant by the Mexico Section of the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission. The project seeks to develop and implement a primary prevention mobile unit to provide access to health services and promote healthy lifestyles to the Latino population in Maricopa County. Dr. Rosales convened and works with a team of interprofessional students and faculty from the UA Health Sciences in Phoenix to provide outreach services to residents who lack access to health services or are underinsured. Only four other cities received similar grants (Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and New York). She also recently was named a member of the Academic Technical Council of the Binational Border Health Network. The network is comprised of experts from 10 border states to improve response to the challenges posed by public health conditions on the U.S.-México border.

Dr. Rosales has demonstrated outstanding expertise and scholarship in the areas of program development and implementation, public health administration and policy and health disparities research related to the Southwest and border region. Her comprehensive understanding of the region has resulted in a unique contribution to the body of knowledge associated with border and Binational Health in general, and strengthening community-based participatory research and collaboration in the Southwest. The U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission, the Arizona-Mexico Commission, the Border Governors and the state health departments in Arizona and Sonora have benefited from her innovative and creative strategies for strengthening the public-health infrastructure in this region.

Dr. Rosales serves as the private sector co-chair of the Health Services Committee of the Arizona-Mexico Commission. Her deep understanding of the context in which the public health infrastructure can be strengthened at the local, state, national and binational level to address the issues of health disparities in this region is combined with her years of experience, along with her passionate commitment to the elimination of health disparities, mentoring of students and encouraging the pursuit of health sciences majors and interprofessional opportunities for students. She has developed a strong academic and community network created through her years of research, practice and service. Dr. Rosales strives to bring and work together with a multidisciplinary and binational cadre of interested parties, including academics, non-profit and governmental officials.

Research Interests:  Public health policy issues on the U.S.-Mexico border