Frank Puga, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Frank Puga is an assistant professor in the Department of Acute, Chronic, and Continuing Care at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing. He is a Latino scientist with a background in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and aging health disparities. Dr. Puga received his Ph.D. in psychology with a concentration in behavioral neuroscience from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2020, he joined the faculty at the University of Alabama, with a primary appointment in the School of Nursing. Dr. Puga’s research focuses on the stress and mental health profiles of older adults living with chronic illness and their care partners. Much of his work focuses on minoritized populations disproportionately impacted by dementia and cancer, including Hispanics and LGBTQ+ individuals who also experience high rates of minority stress and poor mental health. Dr. Puga’s goal is to develop and implement ecologically valid and culturally relevant interventions that mitigate the adverse effects of stress on one’s mental health. Dr. Puga is funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging.
Loreli Alvarez
Loreli is a Clinical Research Coordinator for the lab. She has a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s degree in science in Epidemiology. Loreli works on administrative aspects, community recruitment, and participant communication for the lab’s research projects. Her research interests are mental health and cognition of older adults and the epidemiology of mental illness.
Abigail Poe
Abbey is a Ph.D. student at the UAB School of Nursing. She works with data collection, data analysis, and participant communication. Abbey graduated from Samford University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and is currently a Registered Nurse in the state of Alabama. Her background in nursing care is in acute behavioral health for adolescents and adults.
Elisha Underwood
Elisha Underwood is a clinical research coordinator for the lab. She has a Bachelor’s in Community Health and Human Services from UAB and is currently pursuing a master’s in public health. She has a background in patient care and hospital administration. Elisha helps the team with promoting the study across the country, participant recruitment and managing the labs social media pages.
Nury Alejandra Rodriguez Colmenares
Nury Alejandra Rodriguez is originally from Colombia. She graduated with Honors from Universidad Nacional de Colombia with a BSN and with a Diploma in Public Health Administration. She is pursuing her doctorate at the School of Nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her area of research involves exploring coping strategies, perceived caregiver stress, and cultural values among Hispanic and Latinx dementia caregivers to promote culturally appropriate interventions.
Sofía Mildrum Chana (she/her/ella)
Sofía is a graduate trainee in the Medical/Clinical Psychology doctoral program at UAB. She received her Bachelors of Arts in Psychology and Human Biology from the University of Kansas and her Master’s of Arts in Psychology from UAB. Her research interests are broadly focused on addictive behaviors and digital mental health, specifically on how to leverage digital mental health platforms to address disparities in care access and develop culturally responsive clinical interventions for minoritized communities. Her dissertation will evaluate how Hispanic/Latinx dementia caregivers engage with social media. Clinically, she aims to become a bilingual licensed clinical psychologist, delivering culturally sensitive mental health
care.
Dr. Chunhong Xiao
Dr. Chunhong (Hong) Xiao is a second-year post-doctoral scholar at the UAB School of Nursing, Department of Acute, Chronic, and Continuing Care. Hong’s research focuses on care-resistant behaviors among people with dementia. She earned her BSN with Honors at UABSON and became an RN. She graduated with her PhD in Nursing and developed expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods for secondary data analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis. In her postdoctoral training she continues to build on her research on the characteristics and management of behavioral symptoms of dementia in diverse population. Her research interests include AI applications in behavioral symptom science among persons living with dementia.
Dr. Natashia Bibriescas is a Statistician with a Ph.D. in Quantitative Methods from the University of Texas at Austin. Her expertise includes advanced structural equation modeling techniques and longitudinal data analysis, with an emphasis on intensive longitudinal designs. She has contributed to both methodological simulation research as well as applied studies that focus on mental health outcomes and cognitions within the Latino/a population. Her current research interests include assessing the performance of novel statistical techniques for analyzing intensive longitudinal data. She is also focused on identifying culturally specific factors that impact health outcomes and behaviors among Latinos/as, in order to foster interventions that align with cultural contexts.
