Adolfo Cuevas

Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Professional overview

Adolfo G. Cuevas, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at NYU's School of Global Public Health, and serves as Deputy Director of the Center for Anti-Racism, Social Justice, and Public Health. His research focuses on how discrimination and other psychosocial stressors affect health across the lifespan, employing epidemiological, psychological, and biological approaches to explore these relationships.

Dr. Cuevas currently leads two NIH-funded projects, totaling nearly $4 million, that investigate the effect of neighborhood and interpersonal discrimination on biological dysregulation. The first project (R01DK137805; 2024-2029) addresses a critical gap by examining how discrimination influences allostatic load across three life course stages and identifying gene expression pathways linking discrimination to biological stress. It is also the first to assess how social relationships—such as kinship and community ties—can mitigate the impact of discrimination on gene expression and stress. His second project (R01DK137246; 2024-2029) is the first to longitudinally assess both neighborhood and interpersonal discrimination in relation to obesity, exploring the molecular indicators of stress-related proinflammatory biology that may promote adipose tissue formation.

Dr. Cuevas co-directs the BioSocial Reseach Initiative and is involved in the International Weight Control Registry and the Afro-Latino Health working group. In addition to his NIH-funded projects, he serves as Co-Investigator on several initiatives examining racial biases in healthcare and the neurobiological effects of racism. His research has been featured in leading journals, including Annals of Internal Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, and American Journal of Public Health. His work has also been highlighted by media outlets such as Forbes, HuffPost, and NPR's Code Switch.

For his contributions to research on race, racism, and health, Dr. Cuevas was named one of the National Minority Quality Forum’s 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health and received the Diversity Scholar Award from 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. He earned his PhD and MS in applied psychology from Portland State University and completed postdoctoral training 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

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

The weight of childhood adversity: evidence that childhood adversity moderates the impact of genetic risk on waist circumference in adulthood

Cumulative stress: A general “s” factor in the structure of stress

Developmental timing of initial racial discrimination exposure is associated with cardiovascular health conditions in adulthood

Discrimination and anxiety: Using multiple polygenic scores to control for genetic liability

Infant Health for Arab and Non-Arab Mothers Identifying as White, Black, or Other in Massachusetts

Longitudinal analysis of psychosocial stressors and body mass index in middle-aged and older adults in the United States

Parental educational attainment, the superior temporal cortical surface area, and reading ability among american children: A test of marginalization-related diminished returns

Parents’ Perceived Neighborhood Safety and Children’s Cognitive Performance: Complexities by Race, Ethnicity, and Cognitive Domain

Reply to Letter to the Editor: ‘Discrimination and systemic inflammation: A critical review and synthesis’

Skin Tone, Discrimination, and Allostatic Load in Middle-Aged and Older Puerto Ricans

The Adaptation and Evaluation of a Pilot Mindfulness Intervention Promoting Mental Health in Student Athletes

The relative contributions of behavioral, biological, and psychological risk factors in the association between psychosocial stress and all-cause mortality among middle- and older-aged adults in the USA

A national study of gender and racial differences in colorectal cancer screening among foreign-born older adults living in the US

Assessing racial differences in lifetime and current smoking status & menthol consumption among Latinos in a nationally representative sample

Assessing the Role of Health Behaviors, Socioeconomic Status, and Cumulative Stress for Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Obesity

Diminished Health Returns of Educational Attainment Among Immigrant Adults in the United States

Discrimination and systemic inflammation: A critical review and synthesis

Educational mobility and telomere length in middle-aged and older adults: testing three alternative hypotheses

Greater social cohesion is associated with lower body mass index among African American adults

Health Inequities Among Latinos/Hispanics: Documentation Status as a Determinant of Health

Maternal Health Behaviors and Infant Health Outcomes Among Arab American and Non-Hispanic White Mothers in Massachusetts, 2012-2016