Karen D’Alonzo is an associate professor in the nursing science division and the founding director of the Center for Community Health Partnerships in the School of Nursing. Using community-based participatory methods, D’Alonzo’s scholarship focuses on biobehavioral approaches to the promotion of physical activity and the prevention and management of obesity and obesogenic diseases among Hispanic immigrant women.

D’Alonzo’s National Institutes of Health-funded research projects have made use of lay community health workers (promotoras de salud) to deliver health promotion interventions in the immigrant Latino community in New Brunswick. She has partnered with the Consulate General of Mexico in New York on clinical and research initiatives targeting Mexican immigrants in New Jersey. She also has initiated academic and research partnerships with several nursing programs in Mexico. These experiences have laid the groundwork for future binational educational and research partnerships and demonstrate great potential as a model of global nursing education. Learn more about D’Alonzo.