Rebeca Wong, PhD
Sheridan Lorenz Distinguished Professor in Aging and Health

School of Public and Population Health

Director, WHO/ PAHO Collaborating Center on Aging and Health

Associate Director, Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center and the Sealy Center on Aging

Rebecca Sealy Building, Suite 6.300,
404 St. Mary's Boulevard,
Galveston, Texas

Mailing address:
301 University Boulevard,
Galveston, Texas 77555-0177

Phone: (409) 266-9661
Fax: (409) 772-8931
Email: rewong@utmb.edu

  • Dr. Wong is a Mexican scholar who received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1987. Dr. Wong's research agenda focuses on health disparities and aging, and on the economic consequences of population aging, in particular in Mexico and among immigrant Hispanics in the U.S. She has pioneered the use of cross-national approaches to study health outcomes among international migrants. She serves as Principal Investigator of the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), financed by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health and the Statistical Bureau of Mexico. The study seeks to locate research on Mexico 's unique health dynamics in broad socioeconomic context, and it includes a national longitudinal survey of multiple purposes among population of middle and old age. Dr. Wong has served in the editorial boards of the journals Demography, J. of Aging and Health, J. of Gerontology: Social Sciences, and Papeles de Poblacion. She has served the profession in various national and global committees including the International Outreach Committee of the Population Association of America, the National Academy of Sciences, and as member of review study sections and council member of the National Institutes of Health. She has also served as member of the Board of Directors of both the Population Association of America and the Mexican Society of Demography.

    Curriculum Vitae - CV

    • BS, Actuarial Science, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
    • MS, Applied Economics, University of Michigan
    • PhD, Economics, University of Michigan
    • Old-age consequences of life cycle economic and family decisions
    • Old-age consequences of lifestyle risk factors
    • Mortality and old-age health consequences of Mexico-U.S. migration
    • Cross-national comparisons of health and social inequality across the globe
    • Cross-national comparisons of catastrophic health expenditures in Latin America
    • Department of Preventive Medicine and Population Health
    • WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center on Aging and Health
    • Sealy Center on Aging