Adolfo Cuevas

Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Professional overview

Adolfo G. Cuevas, PhD is an Assistant Professor in GPH’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, as well as a scholar in its Center for Anti-Racism, Social Justice and Public Health. He employs epidemiological, psychological and biological approaches to investigate the effects of discrimination and other psychosocial determinants of health and health inequities. As a community psychologist, he uses population-level datasets and advanced statistical methods to understand how psychosocial determinants “get under the skin” and increase the risk of aging-related diseases.

For his research work on race, racism and health, Dr. Cuevas was selected one of the National Minority Quality Forum's 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health in 2018. He is also a recipient of the Diversity Scholar Award by the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard University. Prior to joining NYU, he was the Gerald R. Gill Assistant Professor of Race, Culture and Society at Tufts University.

Dr. Cuevas’ work has been published in scientific journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Journal of Public Health, and he has been featured in HuffPost and NPR's Code Switch. While at Tufts he directed a multidisciplinary team of researchers investigating the obesogenic effects of discrimination across the life course.

Dr. Cuevas received both his MS and his PhD in applied psychology at Portland State University, with a concentration in community psychology and research methods. He earned a BA in psychology at City College of New York, and received additional training as a cancer prevention postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Education

PhD, Applied Psychology, Portland State University

MS, Applied Psychology, Portland State University

BA, Psychology, City College of New York, 2010

Certificate, Applied Biostatistics, Harvard Catalyst

Honors and awards

National Institute of Health Loan Repayment-Renewal (2021)

Diversity Scholar Award, Nutrition Obesity Research Center, Harvard University (2019)

National Institute of Health Loan Repayment (2019)

40 Under 40 Leaders in Health, National Minority Quality Forum (2018)

Neubauer Faculty Fellowship, Tufts University (2017)

Portland African American Leadership Fellowship (2013)

National Cancer Institute R25E Summer Research Experience, The University of Texas MD, Anderson’s Cancer Prevention Research Training Program (2012)

Bernard R. Ackerman Foundation Award for Outstanding Scholarship (2010)

Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge Graduate of the Year (2010)

City University of New York Pipeline Fellowship (2009)

City University of New York Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) Scholarship (2009)

Psi Chi Honor Society (2009)

Dean’s List Scholar (20082009)

Chi Alpha Epsilon (XAE) Honor Society (2008)

City College of New York’s William Wright Scholarship (2008)

City College of New York Community Service Award (2008)

SEEK Scholarship (2008)

Areas of research and study

Obesity

Psychosocial Stress

Racial/Ethnic Disparities

Publications

Publications

A novel approach to model cumulative stress: Area under the s-factor curve

Education, Income, Wealth, and Discrimination in Black-White Allostatic Load Disparities

Love after lockup: examining the role of marriage, social status, and financial stress among formerly incarcerated individuals

The cost of doubt: assessing the association between attributional ambiguity and mental health

Association of Racial Discrimination With Adiposity in Children and Adolescents

Discrimination Exposure and Polygenic Risk for Obesity in Adulthood: Testing Gene-Environment Correlations and Interactions

Genetic Liability, Exposure Severity, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Predict Cognitive Impairment in World Trade Center Responders

Intersectional vulnerability in the relationship between discrimination and inflammatory gene expression

Length of Residency in the United States and Obesity Across Race/Ethnicity

Parental education and epigenetic aging in middle-aged and older adults in the United States: A life course perspective

Perceived intrinsic, social, and environmental barriers for weight management in older Hispanic/Latino adults with obesity

The Influence of Contested Racial Identity and Perceived Everyday Discrimination Exposure on Body Mass Index in US Adults

The Relationship Between Subjective Social Status, Mental Health Disparities, and the Mediating Role of Discrimination Among Latinx Populations

Use of Bland-Altman Analysis to Examine the Racial and Ethnic Representativeness of Study Populations in Community-Based Pediatric Health Research

Assessing the role of socioeconomic status and discrimination exposure for racial disparities in inflammation

Contested racial identity and the health of women and their infants

Examining the relationship between household wealth and colorectal cancer screening behaviors among U.S. men aged 45–75

How Should Health Equity Researchers Consider Intersections of Race and Ethnicity in Afro-Latino Communities?

Medical mistrust, discrimination, and COVID-19 vaccine behaviors among a national sample U.S. adults

Racial Disparities in Cognitive Function Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: The Roles of Cumulative Stress Exposures Across the Life Course

Socially Assigned Race and the Health of Racialized Women and Their Infants

Stressful Life Events and Obesity in the United States: The Role of Nativity and Length of Residence

Technical report: an online international weight control registry to inform precision approaches to healthy weight management

The Association Between Post-Traumatic Stress and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Puerto Ricans in Boston: How Does Loneliness Matter?

The Association Between Veteran Status and Obesity Differs Across Race/Ethnicity