Bio

I am an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. I had my Ph.D. training in Addictive Disorders and Recovery Studies at Texas Tech University, where I served as manager at the Center for Addiction Recovery Research and as research assistant at the Substance Use, Culture, and Decision-Making Lab, under the mentorship of Dr. Antover Tuliao. My prior research and extension work was focused on mental health, family resilience in disaster situations, and gender. My master’s thesis was on resilience-focused family psychoeducation, under the mentorship of Dr. Jaclyn Marie Cauyan (UP Diliman).  For my doctoral research, I delve on diversity, minority stress processes (e.g., microaggression), and their intersections with substance use outcomes. The ultimate aim of my research is to understand factors that influence health disparities and find ways to address these gaps.