Centers

Dr. Lourdes Hernández-Cordero came to the U.S. in 1996 after receiving her Bachelor in Sciences in Industrial Biotechnology – a degree combining Chemical Engineering and Microbiology – from the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she moved to the United States to attend graduate school. She obtained a Masters in Public Health from the University of Connecticut, School of Medicine in 1998. In 2004 she graduated from the DrPH program in Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, where she is now an assistant professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences co-directing the Urbanism and the Built Environment MPH track. Her dissertation focused on the role of organizations in community mobilization for trauma recovery post the 9/11 disaster. As part of the Community Research Group at Columbia, she has been able to combine her interest in community mobilization and the application of research. The relationships built with local organizations as Program Coordinator for the Northern Manhattan Community Voices Collaborative has served as the foundation for her work. Currently, Dr. Hernández-Cordero directs the City Life Is Moving Bodies (CLIMB) project, a multilevel intervention to promote physical activity, stewardship and social capital. She utilizes community mobilization strategies to engage local stakeholders in initiatives that promote collaboration, resource sharing and a broad work agenda. At the core of the CLIMB project is the creation of a multi-use urban trail to link the escarpment parks of northern Manhattan. In addition she proposes that there are opportunities for conceptually linking organizations, institutions, and residents in the vicinity of the parks to create/strengthen programming and services that address neighborhood needs. Dr. Hernandez is actively involved in public health practice: she currently co-chairs the citywide High Bridge Coalition, is part of the Steering Committee of the East Harlem Food and Fitness Consortium (co-chair, Fitness subcommittee) and represents CLIMB in the Kellogg funded New York City Food and Fitness Partnership (member, Built Environment committee). Her first two projects as a Principal Investigator are an Active Living Planning Grant from RWJF to examine perceptions of the built environment and use of public spaces and a Columbia University Diversity Fellowship examining the application of harm reduction strategies to the management of public spaces. Lourdes lives in northern Manhattan with her husband Rodger Rodriguez and their son Diego Alejandro.