Marisela Cruz

Marisela Cruz, BS, provides support to all SDPRC Cores in her role as Administrative Assistant. She assists with the Familias Sanas y Activas Research Core study, as well as with the Healthy Borders and Academia Fit research projects. Marisela takes detailed minutes at Community Engagement Committee and Investigator meetings, orients student interns, and arranges all national and international travel. A native of the San Diego/Tijuana US-Mexico border region, she communicates easily with the residents of San Diego's South Bay Latino communities.

Marisela earned a B.S. in Anthropology from San Diego State University in 2007, following 2 years of studies in Biological Anthropology and Latin American Literature at the University of California, San Diego. Marisela's experience includes an internship with San Ysidro Health Center's Project Export, a study focusing on cardiovascular disease reduction among low-income Latinos in San Ysidro and volunteer work with the San Diego Museum of Man, assisting with an archeological lecture series on the Kumeyaay Indians. She has provided administrative support to several other research studies at the Institute for Behavioral and Community Health Studies, to the Business and Administration Dean's Office and the Math and Sciences Department at Southwestern College, and to the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia office in Tijuana, Mexico.

Marisela plans to begin the master's degree program in Latin American Studies and Public Health at San Diego State University. She is an avid enthusiast of the Bar Method, an exercise class that incorporates ballet movements.