Committed to social justice


BIO

Drawing from her training at The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and The University of Texas at Austin, Sonia K. González has a proven track record since 1995 working with adolescents and young adults in HIV prevention and college health. She is particularly interested in mobile health-tech to improve health among young people.

Among her many achievements, Dr. González co-founded the Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition, and served as Deputy Director for Love Heals and as a Board of Director for the Red Hook Initiative. She has earned an Interactive Technology & Pedagogy (ITP) Certificate, and was a  New Media Lab fellow at  the Graduate Center, and a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Fellow (NIMH, F31MH099924). She has taught as an Adjunct Professor in the Physician Assistant Program at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at City College, Brooklyn College in the Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies in the Healthcare Administration Certificate Program, NYU College of Global Public Health, and Hunter College in the Department of Community Health. She served as the Health Technology Project Director with the Healthy CUNY Initiative where she implemented a design thinking approach to develop and pilot the Healthy CUNY web-based app on five CUNY campuses with a team of 17 undergraduate and 7 graduate students. After serving as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Center for Health Technology at Hunter College, Sonia joined the faculty of the Public Health Program at the University of Texas at Austin.

When not working, Dr. González is doing yoga or enjoying good food and belly laughing with friends and family in Austin.

 


EDUCATION

The City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy at the Graduate Center

Doctorate of Public Health, Community, Society, & Health,  January 2018
Interactive Technology & Pedagogy Certificate Program, January 2018
Select Honors:
  • CUNY School of Public Health Student Innovation Challenge Award (2015)
  • National Research Service Award, NIMH (F31MH099924, 2012-2014)
  • National Institutes of Mental Health Fellow (Krauss, B., Parsons, J., Roye, C. & Wheeler, D., PI/co-Is, R25MH083602), (2008-2012).

 


Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Master’s of Public Health, Population and Family Health, May 2003
Select Honors:
  • Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health Hispanic Fellow (2001)
  • Co-Chair, International Service Committee, Black and Latino Student Caucus (2002)

 


The University of Texas at University_TEXASAustin

Bachelor of Arts with honors, Latin American Studies and Spanish, Concentrations in Public Health and Linguistics, December 1999
Select Honors:
  • Undergraduate University Research Fellowship (1998)
  • Liberal Art Council to Study Abroad Scholarship for participation in the Dominican Republic Public Health Program (1997)