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Click on the (+) below for a short summary of each Investigators area of research interest and expertise:
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  • Tijerina, Iris
    Tijerina, Iris L.

    Iris Tijerina, MPH
    Regional Research Program Manager
    Obstetrics and Gynecology

    Iris L. Tijerina, MPH is our Regional Research Program Manager in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at UTMB. She has 7 years of experience in research, public health, and a concentration on Health Promotion and Community Health Science. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a Master’s in Public Health. She works with the Program Director, Compliance Manager, and project team members. She oversees all data collection and participates in program implementation and evaluation activities for six school districts. She participates in team meetings and submits data for progress reports and publications. Iris handles issues with scheduling outreach activities for educational sessions and determining students’ eligibility for HPV vaccination and follow-up. She reviews vaccination data and helps schedule and/or navigates appointments for students to complete HPV vaccination. Iris also oversees the activities at the 16 middle schools in six school districts across four counties in the RGV with an estimated current enrollment of 11,162 students. In her role, she develops research strategies, design methods for evaluating the effectiveness of the projects, oversees coordinators’ tasks, and is responsible for research, planning, and implementing new approaches to reach goals and objectives.

  • Moralez, Jesus
    Jesus Moralez

    Jesus Moralez, MPH
    Compliance Manager
    Obstetrics and Gynecology

    Jesus Moralez has 7 years of public health experience in areas of chronic disease and disease prevention. He is a Texas A&M University alumnus with a master’s degree in Public Health. His academic interests include research in effective methods for chronic disease prevention and behavioral health promotion. As the compliance manager, Jesus assists with preparing forms for submission to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and keeping up with regulatory IRB and school board requirements related to the program at all school districts involved with this proposal. He assists our Regional Research Manager with the preparation of quarterly and annual reports as per funding requirements. He serves as a liaison between partner organizations for the transference and the subsequent cleaning, management, and pooling of data. He participates in team meetings and prepares data for progress reports and publications. He also assists with the preparation of flyers and other educational materials for distribution at educational/vaccination events. Jesus helps implement quality improvement activities. He assists the Project Manager full-time with the dissemination and implementation of the project at the different middle schools described in this project. Jesus schedules meetings, educational sessions, and vaccination events; recruits and provides a follow-up with students, conducts investigations, and makes process recommendations for the six school districts. He helps with project tasks, including project coordination and completing study-related data collection and documentation, e.g., policies and procedures for team members.

  • Lincoln, Maria
    Maria Lincoln

    Maria Lincoln MED
    Research Coordinator
    Obstetrics and Gynecology

    Maria F. Lincoln is the Research Coordinator for the School-Based Human Papilloma Virus program from the Rio Grande Valley. She has been part of this program and University for more than two years. Maria has a major in Communication Sciences and Disorders and a minor in Psychology from Texas A&M University- Kingsville, and a Master of Education in Special Education from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. As a research coordinator, she works closely with the team to ensure we are doing a great job implementing strategies for our CPRIT project, “School-Based Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Program”. Maria works with school nurses, parent educators, and principals from the Middle School that she oversees and vendor (Pro-Care) when it comes to coordinating monthly vaccine clinics. She is responsible for data collection, data input, documenting of students who started the first dose or finished the second and third doses of their mandatory vaccines and HPV. Maria also works on parent education and helps the Project Manager with Spanish presentations for parents. In addition, she assists the Program Director with data entry for the team’s daily activity tracking sheets, coordinates events, creates flyers for the school nurses and staff, and is in charge of the school website so that they can have that information ready for parents. Maria is responsible for record reconciliation and making phone calls to parents of students’ pending vaccines to verify if they are up to date if not, and to give them information about vaccines and our events.
  • Quintanilla, Martin
    Martin Quintanilla

    Martin Quintanilla
    Data Coordinator
    Obstetrics and Gynecology

    Martin Quintanilla has a bachelor’s in Health Medical Management. He is the new Data coordinator for the RGV team, based out of Galveston. His duties consist of reconciling the students’ records who have had vaccines into the system and ensuring we have the correct and most updated information on each record. He also assists in helping with the teams’ goal to help vaccinate the students and keep them up to date. He helps assist the Project’s team by working at the school districts. He helps the Project Manager with the dissemination and implementation of the Project at the different middle schools. Martin is responsible for scheduling meetings, educational sessions, and events, recruiting and follow-up with students, conducting investigations and making process recommendations for the school districts. Additionally, he helps with project tasks, including project coordination and completing study-related data collection and documentation, e.g., policies and procedures for team members.
  • Garces, Nadia
    Nadia Garces

    Nadia Garces MA
    Research Coordinator
    Obstetrics and Gynecology

    Nadia was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley. She has a degree of Medical Assistant and 15 years of experience with nonprofits, and three years working with our school-based program. Helping others in the community is her passion and calling. As a research coordinator, she works closely with the team to make sure we are successfully implementing strategies for our CPRIT project, “School-Based Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Program.” Nadia works with school nurses, parent educators, and principals from the Middle School that she oversees and vendor (Pro-Care) coordinating monthly vaccine clinics. She is responsible for data collection, data input, documenting the students who started the first dose or finished the second and third doses of their mandatory vaccines and HPV. Nadia also works on parent education and helps the Project Manager with Spanish presentations for parents. In addition, she assists the Program Director, coordinates events, and creates flyers for the school nurses and staff in charge of the school website to have that information ready for parents. Nadia is also responsible for record reconciliation and making phone calls to parents of students pending vaccines to verify whether they are up to date and give them information about vaccines and our upcoming events.

Rodriguez Team

Team Director: Dr. Ana Rodriguez

This team focuses on the following areas of research:

  1. Human Papillomavirus-vaccine and clinical impact
  2. Cancer Prevention, with emphasis on Gynecologic Cancer
  3. Public Health and Health Disparities
  4. Minimally Invasive Gynecology

The three pillars of medicine are clinical care, research, and education. Jointly, these three pillars enable cross-fertilization of scientific ideas and transfer of knowledge that help advance medicine. Motivation to practice medicine, conduct research and educate the next generation of physicians is born from the observations of grave unmet medical needs among vulnerable patients including women/children who were low income or belonged to minority populations. These observations motivated Dr. Rodriguez to become a physician-scientist focused on treating women with Human papillomavirus (HPV) related pre-cancerous lesions and support public health interventions for increasing HPV vaccination among minority and low-income populations located along the Texas-Mexico border in the United States. She strives to improve access to cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination in this area and has been awarded multiple grants from state agencies and local nonprofit organizations to continue her research.

Learn more about the Rio Grande Valley work