About
Alfonso J. Rojas-Alvarez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso. He also serves as Director of the Health Policy Lab within the College of Health Sciences, where his research group explores the intersection of public policy and health outcomes. Prior to joining UTEP, Dr. Rojas-Alvarez was a faculty member at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.
His research investigates how variations in the implementation of public health policies across federal, state, and local governments contribute to health disparities among vulnerable populations, including Hispanic communities, border residents, and older adults with chronic conditions. He employs methods from data science, machine learning, and causal inference to rigorously assess how policies are implemented and what effects they produce.
Before moving to the United States, Dr. Rojas-Alvarez was an adviser to the Minister of the Presidency of Costa Rica, and adviser to the Minister of Tourism. Since 2007, he has been a regular op-ed columnist at Costa Rica's premier newspaper, La Nación, where he writes about evidence-based policies and current events. He has also worked as a senior data science consultant at ixpantia, specializing on data product development and data-based innovation.