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Faculty

Photo of Judith H. LaRosa

Judith H. LaRosa, PhD, RN

Vice Dean

Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Tel: (718) 270-3204 • Fax: (718) 270-2533

e-mail: Judie.LaRosa@downstate.edu

 

Academic Qualifications:

  • PhD: University of Maryland

 

Background and Expertise:

Dr. LaRosa is a Vice Dean of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center School of Public Health. Dr. LaRosa earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing at the University of Pittsburgh, and her PhD in Health Education at the University of Maryland. Her immediate past positions have been as Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Director, Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women's Health. In addition, Dr. LaRosa served as Associate Project Director of the National Science Foundation's Louisiana Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. From 1991-1994, she was the first Deputy Director of the Office of Research on Women's Health, National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is a co-author of the legislatively mandated 1994 NIH Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research.

Dr. LaRosa's research interests encompass women's health, public health, and cardiovascular disease. She has published in professional and lay journals in the areas of heart disease, women's health, and workplace health promotion and disease prevention. She has also co-authored a textbook, New Dimensions of Women's Health that is now in it's 5th edition.

Dr. LaRosa has served on the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, the Institute of Medicine's Health Science Policy Board, and the National Institute for Nursing Research's Advisory Council, the Institute of Medicine's Committees on Understanding the Biology of Sex and Gender as well as the Committee on Assessing the Medical Risks of Human Oocyte Donation for Stem Cell Research, the National Institute for Nursing Research's Advisory Council, the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, National Science Foundation/Institute of Medicine Committee on Defense Women's Health Research, and was a member of the US Army Research and Materiel Command/United Information Systems, Inc. Core Directorate to design and implement the Department of Defense (DoD) breast cancer and defense women's health grant review process. Dr. LaRosa has served as a scientific reviewer for the NIH, CDC, and DoD. She is on the editorial board of The Journal of Community Health.

Dr. LaRosa is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, a member of Sigma Theta Tau International (honorary nursing society), Delta Omega (public health honorary society), and Sigma Chi Scientific Research Society.

Area of Study:

Cultural Competency; Women's Health; Cardiovascular Disease

Cultural and gender perceptions can play a critical role in health promotion and disease prevention and intervention. Unfortunately, health professionals are often unaware of such perceptions or, if aware, not clear on how to deal with them. The focus of my research interests are in understanding the role of gender-specific and cultural perceptions of diseases and their risk factors among different cultural groups. For example, what, if any, urgent actions will a man or woman of a certain culture take at the first signs and symptoms of a heart attack?; will a woman prefer taking an herbal remedy rather than a prescribed medication for an illness?; will a man refuse an examination because it insults his masculinity? My current project is Cultural Perceptions of Acute Coronary Syndrome, a study examining the urgent actions of culturally diverse men and women when faced with the signs and symptoms of an acute heart attack.

Courses Taught:

  • CHSC 5203: Sex, Gender, Race, and Ethnicity
  • CHSC 5302: Social Marketing
  • CHSC 5310: Independent Study

Current Projects

Cultural Perceptions of Acute Coronary Syndrome

Publications, 2000-Current

Books/Book Chapters

Alexander, Linda L, Judith H. LaRosa, Helaine Bader, and Susan Garfield. New Dimensions in Women's Health. 4th edition. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishing Company, 2006. 5th edition (2009) in progress

LaRosa, Judith H. and John C. LaRosa. Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and CVD in Women. Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes. (ed: Luther Clark, Samy McFarlane). McGraw-Hill. 2006, 456-471.

LaRosa, John C. and Judith H. LaRosa. Dyslipoproteinämien bei Frauen. Handbuch der Fettstoffwechsel-störungen. Stuttgart: Schattauer 2006, 969-978.

LaRosa, John C. and Judith H. LaRosa. Präventionsstrategien bei Dyslipoptoteinamie. Handbuch der Fettstoffwechsel-störungen. Stuttgart: Schattauer 2001, 745-763.

Articles

LaRosa, Judith H. and John C. LaRosa. Coronary Heart Disease in Women: Focus on Lipids. (2006). Minerva Cardioangiologic, 54(3): 311-321.

Yadav Kabir, Shahriar Zetabchi, Nicole Johnson, Danielle Mailloux, Luarie Dubois, Renaldo Austin, Edmond Malka, Judith H. LaRosa. 2005. Predictors of Inner-city Recurrent Violence-related Injuries. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine.23(7): 922-924.

Imperato Pascal James, Judith H LaRosa, and Leslie Schechter. (2005). The development of a Master of Public Health program with an initial focus on urban and immigrant health at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. Journal of Community Health, 30(6): 417-449.

Nicasio J, El-Atat F, McFarlane SI, LaRosa JH. (2005). Cardiovascular disease in diabetes and the cardiometabolic syndrome: focus on minority women. Current Diabetes Report.5(3):208-13.

LaRosa, Judith H. A spectrum of sex differences across a disease: Coronary Heart Disease. In Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health: Does Sex Matter? TM Wizeman and ML Pardue (editors), Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001. 125-133.

LaRosa, Judith H. and John C. LaRosa. 2000. Care and compliance: Enhancing adherence in lipid lowering medications. Archives of Family Medicine, 9: 1169-1175, 2000.

Complete references and link to NCBI abstracts.