Xochitl Castañeda is a Mexican-American public health official and the founding director of the

Health Initiative of the Americas The Health Initiative of the Americas (HIA; Spanish: ''Iniciativa de Salud de las Américas'', ISA) is a Latino program focusing mainly on migrant and immigrant health issues. It is part of the School of Public Health at the University of Califo ...

(HIA) at the School of Public Health of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

(UCB).

Education

Castañeda was educated in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

as a medical anthropologist. She completed post-doctoral fellowships at UC San Francisco,

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and Amsterdam University.

Career

Castañeda served as Professor of Public Health Sciences and principal investigator at

's National Institute of Public Health for seven years and also directed the Department of Reproductive Health. Since 2008, she has served as a professor of migration and health at various

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

campuses. In 2020, Castañeda founded the Health Education for Latinos Program (HELP), a fund that provides annual graduate and undergraduate scholarships to low-income Latino students pursuing careers in health. In 2020, Castañeda received the Mexican National Award of Health in the "Sin Fronteras" (Without Borders) category, recognizing her lifetime contributions to improving the health of Mexicans living abroad.

Publications

Castañeda's body of work includes over 200 publications. She has consulted for more than 40 national and international institutions, contributed to the editorial board of 15 professional publications and presented her work at over 500 national and international conferences, symposiums, policy briefings, and other events.

Book chapters

* "Meanings and Signifiers of Fertility: The Use of Qualitative Methodology in Public Health" In ''Qualitative Methods in Public Health Research'' (1995) Public Health Perspectives No. 20, Nigeda G. & Langer A. (Eds) NIPH * "Migration and the body: Mexican women working in agriculture in California" In ''Compartiendo historias de frontera: cuerpos, géneros, generaciones y salud (2004)'' * "Binational Innovation in Latino Immigrant Health: the Health Initiative of the Americas" In ''Reflections about Mexican Migration and Public Policy'' (2010) CONAPO Press * "Binational Health Week: A Social Mobilization Program to Improve Latino Migrant Health" in ''Accountability Across Borders: Migrant Rights in North America (2019)'' University of Texas Press ; 2018 : Castañeda X, Juan Pablo (Editor), National Council of University Students. Migration of Mexicans to the United States. Human Rights and Development. Volume 20 in the collection Mexico 2018-2024. () ; 2014 : Castañeda X, Rodriguez-Lainz A.
Studying Migrant Populations, General Considerations and Approaches: Migration and Health, a Research Methods Handbook
'.

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

. () ; 2013 : Castañeda X, Felt E, Martinez-Taboada C, Castañeda N, Ramirez T. ''Migratory Stress and Mental Health in Adolescent Young Adult Mexican Immigrants Living in the United States: Contextualizing Acculturation''. In Immigrants: Acculturation, Socioeconomic Challenges and Cultural Psychology. Judy Ho (Ed), Nova Science Publishers. () ; 2013 : Castañeda X, Zavella P.
Las fronteras y los espacios del cuerpo: sexualidad, riesgo y vulnerabilidad en mujeres migrantes mexicanas en California. Ellas se van: Mujeres migrantes en Estados Unidos y España
'. México: Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM Press. () ; 2011 : Castañeda X, Ruiz M, Felt E, Schenker M. ''Health of Migrants: Working Towards a Better Future. In Global Health, Global Health Education, and Infectious Disease: The New Millennium, Part 1.'' Veljil A. Moellering R. (Eds.) Elsevier Press

Books

* ''Health Care During Pregnancy and Birth in Rural Areas'' (1989) Inter-American Social Security Studies Center Press, Mexico. * ''Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States: Health Care Access'' (2006) CONAPO Press * ''Migration and Health: Mexican Immigrant Women in the U.S.'' (2010) CONAPO Press * ''Migration and Health: Young Mexican Immigrants in the US'' (2012) CONAPO Press * ''English-Spanish Dictionary of Health Related Terms 4th Edition.'' (2012) Regents of the University of California * ''Migration and Health: Reflections and challenges about the health of migrants'' (2017) CONAPO-HIA-UCB-SPH * ''Migration and Health: Current challenges and opportunities'' (2020) National Population Council (CONAPO), HIA-UCB-SPH ; 2016: Castaneda X, Bermúdez J, Reyes A, Wallace S
Migration and Health Perspectives on the immigrant population
Mexican Secretariat of the Interior Press () ; 2015 : Bermúdez J, Reyes A, Schenker M, Castaneda X, Felt E, Wallace S
Migration and Health. Profile of Latin Americans in the United States
Mexican Secretariat of the Interior Press () ; 2014 : Schenker M, Castaneda X, Rodriguez A. (Editors
Migration and Health Research Methodologies: a handbook for the study of migrant populations in the 21st Century
UC Press () ; 2013 : Leite P, Castañeda X, Ramirez T, Wallace S
Migration and Health: Mexican Immigrants in the U.S. Mexican
Secretariat of the Interior Press ()

References

*Health Initiative of the Americas. http://hia.berkeley.edu/index.php?page=xochitl-castaneda *School of Public Health, UC Berkeley. http://sph.berkeley.edu/xochitl-castaneda *The California Wellness Foundation http://www.calwellness.org/biographies/biography_board_castaneda.php

External links

Health Education for Latinos Program website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castaneda, Xochitl Mexican public health doctors American women public health doctors