Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH (CU Leader and Program Director) is a social epidemiologist, and the Co-Director of the CU CTSA Community Engagement Resource. Her research utilizes the rich prospective database of the Northern Manhattan Studies where she examines issues related to race-ethnicity, and social resources/health disparities including isolation, educational attainment, nativity, acculturation, health care utilization, language and literacy. Dr Boden-Albala has an extensive history of teaching which includes Course Director for Medical Sociology, Course Director for Advancing Health Literacy, and Course Director for A Systems Approach to Obesity. Her lectures include topics in Social Epidemiology, and health Disparities. She has been faculty for the past 7 years on the recently renewed neuroepidemiology training grant. Her mentorship experience includes more than 20 students in pre and post doctoral programs with a focus on Disparities research.

Dr. Boden-Albala's research is specifically related to health disparities, stroke and vascular disease with emphasis on the identification of novel modifiable stroke risk factors, and the promotion of behavioral change in multi-ethnic populations including urban blacks and Caribbean Hispanics. Grants include an American Heart Association Grant, "Intensive social support and blood pressure control among minority women post stroke"; Project 3, "Stroke Warning information and Faster Treatment (SWIFT)" (the NIH/NINDS Columbia Collaborative SPOTRIAS Program); Project 1 "SWIFT Atlanta" within the NIH/NINDS funded SPRIP Morehouse contract; and "Families understanding risk reduction through educational reinforcement". She was recently appointed PI for the CU School Dean's Grant entitled "The impact of social inequities on the complex relationship between oral health and peripheral vascular disease among Latinos". She currently runs a Community Research Resource Center in the Northern Manhattan community dedicated to improving the health literacy of and improving education and enrollment of minority populations into research studies.