Sirena Gutierrez is a Ph.D. candidate in Epidemiology and Translational Science at the University of California San Francisco. Her research broadly centers on the social determinants of health in older adults across diverse global populations. One aspect of her work involves investigating how school segregation and other features of the schooling environment contribute to racialized disparities in cognitive aging. She aims to untangle how different levels of racism interplay across the life course continuum with various social, environmental, and policy factors. Sirena is also focused on understanding how intergenerational socioeconomic resources influence health outcomes in older adults. In her research, she emphasizes using causal inference methods and econometric techniques to help triangulate evidence across different research disciplines. Her work is supported by the National Institute on Aging.
Ms. Gutierrez is a 2024 AcademyHealth Diversity Scholar.