Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Ph.D., M.P.H. (Chair)
USC Keck School of Medicine
Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati is Associate Dean for Community Initiatives and a tenured Professor in Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine (KSOM) of USC. She is also Faculty Advisor to Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). She holds a Courtesy appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She is the Director of the KSOM Center for Health Equity in the Americas and of the Immigrant Health Initiative, and Co-Director of the Global Health Tract in the Masters of Public Health Program. She is in charge of community outreach and education at the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research (IPR).
Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati is the Executive Producer of the Tamale Lesson, a video that transformed the way we deliver cancer knowledge through narrative to populations, winning awards from APHA and the 10 Year NIH Common Fund. She is also the Director of Es Tiempo, an award winning public education campaign to deliver culturally developed cervical cancer screening messages and monitors increases in information and in screening in Hispanic communities.
Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati has a long history of successful NIH funded grants and impactful publications in scientific journals. These deal with adolescents, acculturation, drug and tobacco use, obesity, and physical activity with most conducted using community based and community participatory methods. She is recognized nationally and internationally for her extensive record of publications in prestigious journals in her field and has won numerous awards and recognitions for her work, including a recent recognition by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office Mike Feuer and City Council Member Mitch O’Farrell for presenting the scientific evidence to City Council that led to Los Angeles adopting regulation to curtail e-cigarettes where cigarettes were already prohibited. Once Los Angeles implemented this regulation over 80 jurisdictions followed. Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati speaks multiple languages fluently, including French and Spanish and is highly sought out as a speaker for her work.
Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati has a Ph.D. in Public Health and an M.P.H. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a M.A. in Medical Psychology from Universite Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium.