Angie Otiniano Verissimo

Dr. Angie Denisse Otiniano Verissimo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Science at CSUSB. She was born in Lima, Peru and grew up in the Inland Empire. Dr. Verissimo earned her PhD and MPH at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA funded by the National Institutes of Health. Her research examines (1) how discrimination and other social determinants of health contribute to health disparities, particularly among the Latinx community, (2) the health and social advantages of engaging community members in research and intervention processes, such as through the Community Health Worker or Promotor Model, and (3) addressing health disparities using an anti-discrimination framework. She has published her research on discrimination and health in several high-impact journals including the American Journal of Public Health and co-authored a chapter in “The Cost of Racism for People of Color: Contextualizing Experiences of Discrimination” published through the American Psychological Association. Dr. Verissimo has been involved in various community-based programs and projects that bring services directly to community members and acknowledge the expertise of community members. She brings her enthusiasm and passion for social justice to the classroom and aims to establish a learning environment for her students that fosters critical consciousness. Dr. Verissimo is also one of the Co-Directors and founding members of Women of Color in Academia at CSUSB.