Juviza is a dedicated public health expert with nearly 20 years of experience working in academic research and non-profit spaces.
As a solutions-oriented thinker, she’s committed to driving impactful change that is grounded in health equity and social justice. Recognized for her exceptional communication skills, Juviza is especially adept at helping teams, partners, and stakeholders understand the needs, barriers, and systemic challenges that marginalized groups encounter when accessing adequate care and health information.
Whether she’s crafting an essay or exploring topics for her creative nonfiction short stories, Juviza taps deeply into her cultural roots and upbringing. Her creative nonfiction work has been published in Palabritas Vol 2. Issue 1 (Harvard), The Washington Heights Memoir Project (Dominican Writers Association), and featured by the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!).
Juviza’s passion for storytelling is an extension of her public health work. She’s explored various formats, including photography, video, and collage to share powerful visual narratives.
Her photo project, Haiti: Beyond Mountains and Poverty, depicting Haiti’s resilience, beauty, and magic, formed part of the 5th annual Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) Fine Arts Exhibition. The photos were subsequently selected for display at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S).
Juviza has facilitated workshops (Dominican Writers Association) using a visual storytelling lens, captured audiovisual postpartum mental health narratives of Black and Hispanic women, and had her collages featured in La Libreta, Jan 23’, Issue #6 (RoblesWrites Productions).
In 2024, Juviza was recognized as a 40 Under 40 Public Health Catalyst, awarded by the Boston Congress of Public Health (BCPH). The year prior, she was selected as a recipient of the 100 Hispanic Women Graduate Fellowship (100 Hispanic Women).
Juviza has served as Chair of Communications for the Latino Caucus for Public Health (2020-2022), Advisory Committee Member (2020-2022) and Chair (2022- 2023) for the Nation’s Health. In 2023
Since 2015, Juviza has worked at the intersection of maternal health and health communication. She deeply understands the importance of cultural nuance, health literacy and health information fluency, and has shared insights on these themes as a presenter at the 22nd Annual IHA Health Literacy Conference.
Juviza’s research interests are centered around how place shapes health. She is primarily interested in neighborhood factors, like community design, food environments, and housing, and their impact on maternal and infant health outcomes.
Always seeking to connect her research to storytelling, Juviza is exploring methods and tools, like data visualization and mapping, to better understand patterns in adverse maternal health outcomes among women of color.
Juviza was a PhD fellow at the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute and for the Region 2 Public Health Training Center.
