Biography

Saida Coreas is a PhD candidate in the Health Behavior Research program in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at USC. She graduated from California State University, Los Angeles in 2018 with a B.S. in Public Health. She then completed a three-year (2018–2021) post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) fellowship at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the NIH, where she studied tobacco use patterns and smoking initiation among U.S. youth and adults, as well as acculturation and cardiometabolic risk factors among U.S. Latinos. Saida’s current research centers on how social determinants of health and stress influence tobacco use among minority populations. She was recently awarded a Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) predoctoral grant, which supports her dissertation work examining stress processes and tobacco use in adolescents, young adults, and sexual minority dyads. Through this research, she hopes to inform prevention and cessation efforts that reduce tobacco-related health disparities. Outside of research, she enjoys gardening, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.