Diego Zavala, MS, PhD
Associate Professor of Public Health

MPH - General Program Coordinator
 


 		  

 
Bio
 
Dr. Zavala earned his PhD degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, Texas, and an MSc degree in Medical Demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a second MSc degree in Epidemiology from Tulane University School of Public Health. Dr. Zavala has an extensive experience in cancer epidemiology research at the international level and in Puerto Rico. Since 2001 Dr. Zavala has dedicated his research activities to the prevention and control of injuries and armed violence in particular. Dr. Zavala was the Principal Investigator of a pilot project on the development of hospital based injury surveillance systems in five African countries and held a temporary assignment with the United Nations Development Program to support two Regional Seminars on Armed Violence and Development in Latin America.

From 1981 to 1994, Dr. Zavala was Research Assistant at LSU Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Between 1994 and 2001, Dr. Zavala worked at Puerto Rico’s Department of Health director of the Central Cancer Registry and director of the Division of Surveillance Epidemiology and Statistics- Chronic Diseases.

Dr. Zavala participated at the UN Third Biennial Meeting of the States Preparatory Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty in July 2008 and the final Arms Trade Treaty Conference in July 2012 to expose to State party officials the impact of armed violence on health.

Dr. Zavala is an Associate Professor in the Public Health of the Ponce School of Medicine and Health Sciences since 2004.

Current: Violence prevention research; Injury Surveillance (Africa, Latin America); Disaster Operations; GIS

Previous: Early detection of stomach cancer; Cancer Registries; Health Survey (BRFSS).



 
Courses
 
  • DISASTER EPIDEMIOLOGY
  • INFERENTIAL BIOSTATISTICS
  • HEALTH PROMOTION AND DISEASE PREVENTION
  • GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM
  • INJURY EPIDEMIOLOGY
  • VIOLENCE, INJURY AND PUBLIC HEALTH
     
  • Courses that could teach:

    MPH: Introduction to Biostatistics, Introduction to Epidemiology, Statistical Methods in Epidemiology, Statistical Software in Research, Advanced Epidemiology, Applied Epidemiology and Surveillance, Research Methods in Epidemiology.

    DrPH: Biostatistics for Epidemiology, Epidemiology Data Analysis, Cancer Epidemiology

     
Research Interest
 
  • Injury and Violence Prevention
  • Surveillance Systems - GIS
  • Cancer Research
     

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