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Mark Padilla

Mark Padilla

Professor

Global and Sociocultural Studies

Office: SIPA 320

Phone: 305-348-1296

Email: marpadi@fiu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Bio

Dr. Padilla, Professor, is a medical anthropologist with training and experience in public health both domestically and internationally. Most of his work is located at the juncture of anthropology and the more applied concerns of public health. As an anthropologist trained in ethnographic methods, globalization, and critical medical anthropology, he has sought to bring structural and social inequalities into greater focus in public health, and to advocate for evidence-based policy reforms to address the health needs of vulnerable populations.

His first book, Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality and AIDS in the Dominican Republic (University of Chicago Press, 2007), provides a structural analysis of patterns in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean, drawing on experience-near ethnography with men who work in the tourism industry in two Dominican cities. Subsequently, he carried this work forward with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), using innovative mixed-method studies to translate ethnographic interpretation into intervention and policy recommendations for HIV/AIDS prevention. These findings have been published in multiple peer reviewed publications and community-based dissemination projects. 

Having conducted multiple studies relating to HIV/AIDS, Dr. Padilla’s research has more recently turned to considerations of disasters and the health care system in Puerto Rico.  He teaches and mentors students on: medical anthropology, ethnographic and mixed-method research, visual methods, and global health.

Since 2006, Dr. Padilla’s research has been continuously funded through NIH, and his work has also been funded through foundations such as the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. These projects also have incorporated multiple student researchers, many of whom have published with him over the years. Some of his recent projects in the Caribbean include:

  • 2013-2018: “Migration, Tourism, and the HIV/drug-use Syndemic in the Dominican Republic.” (NIDA Grant 1 R01 DA031581-01A1). PI: Mark Padilla. The “Syndemics Project” used the medical anthropological notion of “syndemics” to address the political, economic, and cultural conditions of those who serve a tourist clientele in Santo Domingo and Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic.
  • 2018-2020: “A Multi-Level Health Systems Study of Collapse and Resilience in Puerto’s Response to Hurricane Maria.” (National Institute on Aging, #1R21AG063453-01). Role: Co-PI (with Nelson Varas-Diaz and Sheilla Rodriguez-Madera). This study (“the AFTER project”) examined using ethnographic methods the impact of hurricane Maria on the health care system in Puerto Rico, incorporating multilevel institutional ethnography with patients, providers/administrators, and policy makers.
  • 2020-2024: “Physician Migration and Its Effects on Puerto Rico’s Health Care System” (National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, #1R01MD014188-01A1. Role: Co-Principal Investigator (with Nelson Varas-Diaz and Sheilla Rodriguez-Madera).
  • 2022-2027: Disasters, solar energy, and chronic disease management in aging Puerto Ricans” 1R01AG072613-01A1. Role: Co-Principal Investigator (with Nelson Varas-Diaz and Sheilla Rodriguez-Madera).
  • 2022-2027: Disasters, solar energy, and chronic disease management in aging Puerto Ricans” 1R01AG072613-01A1. Role: Co-Principal Investigator (with Nelson Varas-Diaz and Sheilla Rodriguez-Madera).

In recent years, Dr. Padilla has incorporated visual methods into his research, including PhotoVoice and award-winning documentary films.  

Dr. Padilla directs the Research Center for Health and Society (REACH) at SIPA/FIU, which aims to provide opportunities for linkage, training, and collaboration across the social sciences, health sciences, and humanities at FIU and allied institutions. REACH is housed administratively within the The Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA).  For more information, see: https://gss.fiu.edu/research/reach-research-network-health-society/index.html

Selected Publications

Padilla M, Olah S, Matiz A, Soliván-Roig J, Bravo González J, Frau Canabal J, Rodríguez Torrado MJ, Rivera Méndez E, Ganapati NE, Chandrasekhar D, García I, Olshansky RB. (2024). Community health promotion and disaster recovery: a PhotoVoice project in Comerío, Puerto Rico. Arts & Health. 2024 Dec 28:1-18. doi: 10.1080/17533015.2024.2445030. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39731514. 

Arreola S, Padilla M, Arnold EA, Danley D, Lightfoot M, Woods WJ, Neilands TB. Mentoring Early-Career Investigators of HIV/STI Health Disparities Research: A Study Examining the CAPS Visiting Professors Program. Health Education & Behavior. 2024 Nov 27:10901981241294245. doi: 10.1177/10901981241294245. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39600225.

Padilla M, Varas-Diaz N, Rodríguez-Madera S, Vertovec J, Rivera-Custodio J, Rivera-Bustelo K, Mercado-Rios C, Matiz-Reyes A, Santiago-Santiago A, González-Font Y, Ramos-Pibernus A, Grove K. (2024). "They think we wear loincloths": Spatial stigma, coloniality, and physician migration in Puerto Rico. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 2024 Jun;38(2):224-239. doi: 10.1111/maq.12857. Epub 2024 Apr 20. PMID: 38642372.

Varas-Díaz, Nelson, Sheilla Rodríguez-Madera, Mark Padilla, Kariela Rivera-Bustelo, Claudia Mercado-Ríos, Joshua Rivera-Custodio, Armando Matiz-Reyes, et al. (2023). “On Leaving: Coloniality and Physician Migration in Puerto Rico.” Social Science & Medicine 325 (May 2023): 115888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115888.

Madera, Sheilla R., Mark Padilla, Nelson Varas-Díaz, Alíxida Ramos-Pibernus, Yoymar González-Font, Adrián Santiago-Santiago, John Vertovec, et al. (2023). “On Staying: Non-Migration among Puerto Rican Physicians.” Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture 14, no. 2 (October 1, 2023): 213–34. https://doi.org/10.1386/cjmc_00084_1.

Padilla, M., Rodríguez-Madera, S., Varas-Díaz, N., Grove, K., Rivera, S., Rivera, K., Contreras, V., Ramos, J., Vargas-Molina, R. (2021). “Red tape, slow emergency, and chronic disease management in post-Maria Puerto Rico.” Critical Public Health, https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2021.1998376.

Rodríguez-Madera, S., Varas-Díaz, N., Padilla, M., Grove, K., Rivera-Bustelo, K., Ramos, J., Contreras-Ramirez, V., Rivera-Rodriguez, S., Vargas-Molina, R., Santini, J. (2021). “The impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico’s health system: Post-disaster perceptions and experiences of health care providers and administrators.” Global Health Research and Policy, 6(44): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41256‑021‑00228‑w

Witkowski, K., Vertovec, J., da Silva, N. M., Awadzi, R. K., Yamini, F., Varas-Díaz , N., Padilla, M., Rodríguez-Madera, S. L., Matiz Reyes, A., & Marr, M. (2021). Miami in Transformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Participatory Visual Culture Analysis. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 20(1), 157–181. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.20.1.2021.3772 (student-led publication on project for which Padilla is PI).

Witkowski, K., Valerio, R., Samad, A., Matiz, A., Padilla, M. (2020). “Aging and thriving with HIV: A PhotoVoice project with long-term HIV survivors in Miami, Florida.” Arts and Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy, and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2020.1821386 (student-led publication on project for which Padilla is PI)

Areas of Expertise

Critical Medical Anthropology, Global Health, Latin America, Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Tourism Studies, HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention, Mixed Methods Research on Health Inequities, Visual Methods. 

Degrees

PhD (Anthropology), Emory University, 2003; MPH (International Health), Emory University, 1998.