Meet the Team

Erik Ruiz

Erik earned a Bachelor’s in Biology from James Madison University in 2012 and a Master’s in Public Health from Benedictine University in 2020. Before coming to the University of South Florida, he worked for several years as a commercial scientist in the environmental health and then the pharmaceutical industries. He also has over 5 years of experience in supporting diverse LGBTQ+ youth groups and providing sexual behavioral health outreach and education in underserved communities for various state and community organizations. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Community and Family Health in the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida.

Erik is currently working to support multiple research projects that center the supportive care and health literacy needs of Latinx people in the US and in Latin America. His own research interests center the sociocultural needs of Latinx adolescents in the management of adverse mental healthcare disparities. In his doctoral work he would like to address the factors that facilitate cultural stigma associated with poor mental wellbeing at the community and ultimately policy levels.