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Drs Avila and Stensland

RCMAR Lecture February 24, 2026

Feb 24, 2026, 09:05 AM by rmgrover

Join us for a Texas RCMAR presentation online via Teams on February 24, at 3:00 PM.

The Impact of Lifetime Smoking Exposure on the Cognitive Function of Older Mexican Adults

Dr. Jaqueline Avila has a PhD in Population Health Sciences and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her work focuses on social determinants of health outcomes among older adults who smoke in the U.S. and Latin America. The main disciplines in her research are population aging, tobacco control and social epidemiology.

Empowering Hispanic Older Adults as Peer Leaders: A Feasibility Pilot Targeting Chronic Pain and Depression

Meredith Stensland, PhD, LMSW, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She holds an MSW and PhD in social work, and her clinical experience includes hospice, geropsychiatry, and behavioral chronic pain therapy.  Her research focuses on non-pharmacological management of chronic pain in older adults, as well as identifying and treating psychosocial factors that predict outcomes among patients undergoing interventional spinal procedures.

 

Contact Us

Sealy Center on Aging (SCOA)
301 University Blvd.
Galveston, TX 77555-0177
Directions and Maps
Phone: (409) 747-0008
Email: aging.research@utmb.edu

Thanks for your interest in our research.

The Texas Resource Center on Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) is based at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). It includes mentors from UTMB, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and the University of Texas at Austin. Funding is provided by the National Institute on Aging, Grant Number P30AG059301. Contact Roxann Grover, MA regarding updates to this content.