People

David Liendo Uriona, MPH

David Liendo is a second-year Ph.D. student in Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research interests focus on health literacy, mental health, and digital media, with an emphasis on how intersectionality—including immigration status, race/ethnicity, language, and socioeconomic status—shapes health communication experiences and outcomes.

At the Horowitz Center for Health Literacy, David supports the Pandemic Readiness Initiative (PRI), where he contributes to research on community trust, crisis communication, and public health preparedness. His qualitative work explores how community health workers (CHWs) build trust with Latine immigrant communities in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, centering culturally responsive strategies to rebuild confidence in public health systems.

Email: dliendou@umd.edu 

Hasmin Ramirez

Hasmin Ramirez-Villegas, MPH, is a Health Literacy Doctoral Research Assistant at the Horowitz Center for Health Literacy. She received her MPH in Epidemiology from George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, with a focus in HIV/AIDS and infectious disease. Prior to matriculating to the Behavioral and Community Health PhD 2025 cohort, she was the Clinical Research Coordinator of the Health Disparities Unit within the Social and Behavioral Research Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institutes. Her research focuses on examining the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genomics research and the equitable integration of knowledge through mixed-methods approaches, with a special interest in sickle cell disease and health disparities among Latina/o/x individuals with/without genetic conditions. She investigates how language proficiency and health literacy influence behavior and impact health inequities among underrepresented communities.