For immediate release: Aug. 15, 2007
GALVESTON, Texas - Rebeca Wong, an internationally recognized investigator of Hispanic health issues, has been named director of the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization Collaborating Center on Aging and Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

"Dr. Wong is internationally recognized for her research on Hispanic health and aging," said Dr. James S. Goodwin, director of UTMB's Sealy Center on Aging. "She is perhaps the leading authority on issues involving border health and migration. In many ways, given her close ties to health investigators throughout Latin America, she is the perfect leader for the UTMB WHO Center for Aging and Health."

Wong is a senior research scientist and associate director of the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland. She earned her doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan. Wong is expected to take her new position at UTMB no later than January.

A native of Mexico and a U.S. citizen, her research interests include old-age consequences of life cycle economic and family decisions, old-age consequences of life style risk factors, mortality and health consequences of Mexico-U.S. migration, and cross-national comparisons of health and social inequality in Latin America.

In addition to leading the WHO center at UTMB, Wong will also serve as a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health and a senior fellow in the Sealy Center on Aging.

"We see this as a significant hire for UTMB," said Kenneth J. Ottenbacher, current director of the WHO center. "Her recruitment to UTMB will substantially increase our visibility in two areas of importance at UTMB - aging and minority/Hispanic health." Ottenbacher, who is stepping aside to make room for Wong, is director of the UTMB Center for Rehabilitation Sciences and senior associate dean for graduate education and research in the School of Allied Health Sciences.
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