Cynthia Pando is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in the Sociology of Health and Illness track. She received her Master’s in Sociology and Bachelor’s in Behavioral Neuroscience and Sociology from Lehigh University. She was an NICHD-funded population health trainee at the Minnesota Population Center. Her research interests include Latinx immigrant health, immigration policies, and health disparities. Cynthia’s dissertation focuses on the impact of the proposed changes to an immigration policy, the public charge rule, on Medicaid enrollment of Latinx US citizen children by parental immigration status. Her findings will contribute to federal and state policy recommendations about healthcare access for citizen children in immigrant families. Her career goal is to conduct research that supports initiatives to improve immigrants’ health and healthcare access.
Ms. Pando is a 2023 AcademyHealth Diversity Scholar.