Candace Robledo, PhD, MPH

Biography

Dr. Robledo is a doctoral-level epidemiologist with experience conducting research on a broad range of environmental health, and behavioral research topics. Dr. Robledo has obtained degrees from Texas A&M University (B.S.), Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center (MPH) and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (PhD). She has also completed a post-doctoral fellowship within the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Division of Intramural Population Health Research. Dr. Robledo is also an Oklahoma Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (OKLEND) Fellow, an interdisciplinary leadership education program funded by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau in the US Health Resources and Services Administration. She served for three years as an Assistant Professor and Director of the MPH Maternal and Child Health program, Department of Behavioral and Community Health at The University of North Texas Health Sciences Center. She is currently a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health & Biostatistics at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, School of Medicine. Her primary research interests have focused on assessing the impact that environmental chemicals (i.e. bisphenol-A, phthalates, persistent organic pollutants and air pollution) have on maternal and child health. Dr. Robledo has also sought funding to leverage her experience and expertise to expand her research portfolio in the AD/ADRD field. She obtained pilot funding from the RGV AD-RCMAR and a career development award from the National Institute on Aging STAC to examine how exposures to persistent organic pollutants impact the aging brain in humans. She has also sustained funding from the NIH Community-Engagement Research Alliance Against COVID-19 in Disproportionately Affected Communities Consortium (see www.TexasCeal.org) to conduct research aimed at understanding how pandemic conditions impact mental health and well-being and increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence in Mexican American populations. Most recently, she was awarded funding by the Health Resources Services Administration (6 UR6MC50345‐01‐03) to build sustainable community partnerships to build regional capacity to conduct maternal health research in Hispanic women.

Dr. Robledo is the director of UTRGV's Maternal Health Research Center and will also help lead the community engagement core for the Rio Grande Valley Cancer Health Disparity Research Center (RGV-CHDRC)

Research Focus

Examining the contribution of persistent organic pollutant exposures on mild cognitive impairment in Mexican Americans

Candace Robledo, PhD, MPH

Studies of the etiology of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) among Mexican Americans is warranted given this rapidly growing and aging segment of the US Hispanic population. Sixty-five percent of US Hispanics are Mexican American and 12% of all older Hispanics will develop AD, more than any other racial/ethnic group in the US. The neurotoxic effects of environmental chemical exposures on the developing and aging brain have been demonstrated, indicating that exposure to environmental chemicals across the lifespan may be an important contributor to the risk of MCI in Mexican Americans. A matched case-control study will be undertaken to examine the role that persistent organic pollutant exposures have on the development of MCI in Mexican Americans.

The specific aims of this project will be to leverage banked serum samples from the San Antonio Mexican American Family study to 1) Characterize and compare levels of 55 persistent organic pollutants among 50 Mexican Americans with MCI and 50 controls matched on age and gender; 2) Use innovative statistical techniques to account for multiple comparisons and to control for genetic effects to comprehensively assess and better detect associations between persistent organic pollutants and MCI in Mexican Americans; and 3) Estimate the population attributable risk or the percent of MCI cases among Mexican Americans that might have been prevented if exposure to persistent organic pollutants were lower. The results of this pilot project will inform the design of subsequent studies to further explore the contributions of environmental chemical exposure on mild cognitive impairment, an important precursor to Alzheimer’s disease in Mexican Americans.