Diana Hernández is an associate professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She is an expert on community-based health care, minority health, environmental risk factors and urban health. She focuses her work on the social and environmental determinants of health in vulnerable populations.

Hernández’s research examines the intersections between the built environment (housing and neighborhoods), poverty/equity and health, with an emphasis on energy insecurity. Much of her research is conducted in her native South Bronx neighborhood. She is principal or co-investigator on several projects related to structural interventions in low-income housing, such as energy efficiency upgrades, cleaner burning fuel source conversions, smoke-free housing compliance, and new finance and capital improvement models in public housing.

Pronouns: She/her

Expertise: Community-based health care, minority health, environmental risk factors, urban health, low-income housing, public housing

Location: New York, N.Y.

Email: dh2494@columbia.edu

Phone: (212) 305-0245 (office)

Heard on Columbia Public Health video: Energy Insecurity