Mentors - Colombia

Diego I. Lucumi, MD, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor
Universidad de los Andes

Dr. Lucumi is a leading expert on social determinants of health especially for hypertension and social patterning of cardiovascular and metabolic risk. Much of his work focuses on socioeconomic factors that influence health. His publications range on topics including social determinants of hypertension, social patterning of cardiovascular and metabolic risk, and the socioeconomic status and health related quality of life among older adults in Colombia. Since 2015, he has been a principal investigator and co-principal investigator of two studies that examine the role of social and behavioral factors on hypertension. As a faculty member and director of the Masters of Public Health program from 2016 to 2018, he supervised and mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students

Augusto Perez
Professor of Psychology and Director
Corporacion Nuevos Rumbos

As Professor at the University of los Andes, Dr. Perez directed the program La Casa for 11 years, intended to prevent and treat drug abuse problems, violence, suicidal ideas and HIV / AIDS. Since 2002, he lead the Nuevos Rumbos Corporation, an organization dedicated to research and drug and alcohol prevention. He was the Principal Investigator of a project funded by the Organization of American States Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission to develop the methodology to calculate the costs of drug abuse in the continent. Dr. Perez served as the Principal Investigator of a sub-award from the University of Miami on the NIDA-funded on the Risk Factors for Adolescent Drug Use in the United States and Colombia grant (5R01 DA031175-04; Eric C. Brown, PI). He also conducted a large number of investigations, including the translation into Spanish and the adaptation of the Harvard Children Hospital CRAFFT/CARLOS as well as the  Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system, which has been implemented in 13 municipalities in Colombia since 2012. He collected data from over 50,000 students using the Colombian adapted and validated version of the CTC Youth Survey and developed, applied, and evaluated preventive interventions such as the Brief Intervention based on Motivational Interviewing, Familias Afectivas (Affective Families), and Assertiveness training. His experience in drug abuse prevention and treatment spans over 30 years. He has have been a Visiting Professor at the University of London (School of Medicine at Chelsea and Westminster) and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of New Jersey and published 182 papers in five languages (Spanish, English, French, German and Portuguese), and 14 books