Mislael A. Valentín-Cortés

Mislael Valentín-Cortés is a Puerto Rican mixed-methods researcher, evaluator, educator, and public health practitioner with 8+ years of experience in health education, program evaluation, and scientific research. His professional and academic endeavors focus on community-based approaches to addressing health equity, understanding and addressing socio-structural inequities, natural & environmental hazards, and how to mitigate the effects of emerging national and global public health threats through epidemiologic research and public health practice. 

Dr. Valentín-Cortés holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. His doctoral research examined the social and public health consequences of climate change, environmental hazards, extreme events and social structures. He also has a Master of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education and a Master of Social Work in Social Policy and Evaluation from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in English & Social Science from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. 

Having grown amidst poverty, scarcity of resources, and witnessing the adverse health impact of unequal social structures on his community, Mislael has developed a strong commitment to addressing these issues. He has worked in academic institutions, local and state health departments, consulting firms, and nonprofit institutions to address health issues at multiple levels. Earlier in his career, his professional and academic pursuits focused on how social influences—i.e., racism, discrimination, xenophobia, sexism, and resource scarcity—have influenced the health outcomes of socially-made vulnerable populations (e.g., Latinx, people of color, immigrants, women, and older adults). In recent years, with the situation in his home in Puerto Rico, which has been ravaged by multiple disasters, his research has focused on studying and addressing disaster events within a health disparities framework to build community resilience and advance recovery efforts in the face of these challenges.