Biography:

Dr. Cassandra Arroyo received her BS in Pure Mathematics from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 1998, an MS in Biostatistics in 2000 and PhD in Biostatistics, with a minor in Social and Behavioral Determinants of Disease in 2003, both from Harvard University.  Her dissertation research involved high dimensional data analysis with applications to physical activity and diabetes prevention. Dr. Arroyo completed a three year postdoctoral fellowship in quantitative cardiovascular social epidemiology in the Social Epidemiology Research Center at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Arroyo is a classic example of what can happen when minority students are engaged early in their academic training in research that is relevant to their communities. She has dedicated a considerable amount of time during her training and career to issues relating to the successful recruitment, retention and graduation of underrepresented minority students into schools of public health to create a diversified and competent workforce. To date, her life’s work has been deeply rooted in the social and health issues she witnessed in her own community as a child. She is committed to the idea that health disparities elimination cannot happen without substantial social, political, ethical, economical and emotional changes. She continues to focus her research on identifying the interrelationships of social and behavioral risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in African Americans and Latinos. 

Dr. Arroyo’s current projects include development and capacity building of the Jenkins County Diabetes Coalition (funded by Medical University of South Carolina’s REACH-US: Southeastern African American Center for Excellence in the Elimination of Diabetes Disparities), identifying factors associated with school/program of public health choice among minority students, describing the local social context for the promotion of healthful living in Bulloch County, participatory evaluation of community-based participatory research projects to reduce health disparities in Albany, Fort Valley, Augusta and Savannah, evaluation of a statewide substance abuse and fire injury resistance program, and evaluation of a statewide childhood asthma management program.

Dr. Arroyo is an active member of the American Public Health Association’s Epidemiology Section, Society for Epidemiologic Research, American Association of Diabetes Educators, as well as, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and Bulloch County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).