I am an early career investigator who is highly motivated to pursue a research career in a university setting. The base of my research started at Miami University under the mentorship of Drs. Suzanne Kunkel, Scott Brown and Robert Applebaum. With a focus on understanding health disparities and healthcare issues of elderly Hispanics. I presented my first work on healthcare utilization among Hispanics at the Gerontological Society of America in 2011, where I received a poster award for best student presentation by the Gerontological Society of America Emerging Scholars and Professional Organization. I obtained a doctoral dissertation grant from the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation, and a dissertation fellowship from the graduate school at Miami University that continued at the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research at Brown University. My mentors Drs. Vincent Mor, Amal Trivedi and co-investigators at the Center have been instrumental in helping me achieve my postdoctoral career goals, and to continue to study health and healthcare disparities among Mexicans. I am currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice funded by the NIA to examine disparities in post-acute care utilization and gain a comprehensive understanding of the quality of post-acute care services received by elderly minority groups, including Hispanics. In addition, I have received funding to understand Medicare Advantage choices among Medicare beneficiaries. 

My career goal is to become a renowned leader in gerontology and healthcare research, while emphasizing my intense interest in improving health and healthcare for disadvantaged minority elders through policy-relevant research. My research interests include racial and ethnic disparities in access and quality of care, and health outcomes of older adults. I have several research objectives and career goals in relation to these research interests that are heavily influenced by my background and training. I want to develop a body of work that not only examines racial disparities for the population of interest, but also helps to develop interventions that will improve care and decrease any disparities detected. More specifically, as a gerontologist and Hispanic, I want to contribute to the literature on Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries in Fee-for-Service and Medicare Advantage plans, which has remained largely understudied in comparison to other populations. This, also includes docummenting inequities in access and quality of care among beneficiaries in Puerto Rico.
 

Maricruz Rivera-Hernandez (PI). Advance-CTR  “Medicare Advantage Plan Choice and Selection among Vulnerable Seniors” 05/01/18 – 04/30/19, $118,051

Maricruz Rivera-Hernandez (PI). “Nursing Home Care Disparities for Hispanic Medicare Advantage and Fee-For-Service Beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias”  (R03AG054686-01A1) 08/15/2018 – 07/30/2019, $50.000

2011 - Poster award for the best student presentation, Gerontological Society of America

2012 - Dissertation Research Award, Graduate School at Miami University in Ohio

2012 - Doctoral Dissertation Grant Program Fahs-Beck Scholars from the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation: The New York Community Trust

2012 - Department of Sociology and Gerontology Dissertation Fellowship, Miami University

2012 - RAND Summer Institute Scholar

2013 - ICPSR Health Disparities Research and Vulnerable Populations Summer Scholar

2015 - Best Poster Award finalist, Gerontological Society of America

2020 - Butler-Williams Scholars Program

2020 - Junior Faculty AcademyHealth Disparities Interest Group Award

2021 - Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials

1. Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice
2. Center for Gerontology and Health care Research