Mario De La Rosa—Advancing Junior Substance Abuse Researchers through the Pipeline

Mario De La Rosa is a Colombian-born academician who immigrated to the United States (U.S.) when he was 14 years old. His career trajectory has led to his current appointments as professor and Director of the Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA) at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University. He has been a relentless champion for the underserved and a contemporary thought leader, providing philosophical, scholarly, and a boots-on-the-ground-type leadership. He has led fights against HIV and substance use and for community engagement, working primarily but not exclusively with disempowered Hispanic populations. Mario has demonstrated the ability to be efficacious with training and research initiatives for emerging ethnic and racial minority group scholars.

As a young immigrant in upstate New York, Mario saw the devastating effects that substance abuse had on his neighbors and friends and the corrosive influence of poverty and discrimination. Thus began his quest for finding solutions to substance abuse and other social ills confronted by Latino neighbors and friends. His research—always grounded in social science principles—has been groundbreaking in providing the foundation for the development of effective community-based substance abuse interventions in Latino populations in the U.S. and Latin America. He is a visionary who recognized the value of consumer and citizen participation in academic research and community engagement for health promotion and disease prevention. He has effectively transcended barriers of misogyny, racism, classism, homophobia, and other discriminatory practices to a place and space that puts him in harmony with life forces. He views his role as a broker bringing town and gown together for health initiatives—like a Ghanaian Kente Weaver threading a tapestry of many colors to create a humanity where health equity is the goal. He creates a beautiful mosaic of opportunity and challenges through his fresh, clear, and purposeful thinking. He uses words such as challenges as opposed to problems and shared leadership as opposed to my idea. He believes in genuine collaboration with communities, contrasting the unfortunate incidents in which a research team swoops into a community and just as quickly retreats, absconding with valuable data for personal and professional gain. His vision and path is lit by epiphanies exalting the greater good of the community at large. The peaks and valleys of his illustrious career have afforded him the opportunity to interact with behavioral and clinical scientists, legislators, media, faculty, staff and students with integrity. He embodies the ideal of a trusted collaborator in the eyes of community constituents.

Dr. De La Rosa’s career in substance use and abuse research was launched after 10 years as a public health administrator—Office of Special Populations and Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In 2003 he established the Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA) at Florida International University to address the escalating twin epidemics of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS affecting Latino communities throughout South Florida. Specifically, CRUSADA investigates social determinants of health among Latinos, including socioeconomic, linguistic, and cultural structures, as well as simple, practical health care barriers (such as transportation). His Center facilitates the transfer of culturally relevant information that can be used by community-based organizations in the development of evidence-based HIV and substance abuse prevention strategies among Latinos and other marginalized populations. CRUSADA continues to enhance trust between researchers and the community by allowing for meaningful involvement of the community in the Center’s research, training, and community-oriented activities. For several years he served as an evaluation consultant for the W.K. Kellogg Community Voice Initiative, where he assisted local communities in eight states (California, Michigan, Colorado, North Carolina, Florida, New Mexico, Maryland, and New York) with program design and evaluation.

The Center continues to produce a cadre of scientists conducting research on health disparities that focus on HIV and substance abuse among Latino and migrant populations. [End Page 6...