Victoria Orrego (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. Dr. Orrego’s research is positioned at the intersection of health communication and prevention science. Dr. Orrego focuses on addressing health disparities by developing, adapting and implementing community-based interventions. Her expertise lies in campaign/intervention message design, identification of channels and sources of health information as well as effective application of behavior change theories to inform formative evaluations, campaign design, and tailored messaging. Dr. Orrego has worked in partnership with the University of Miami’s Department of Public Health, Epidemiology, the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Organization (increasing minority organ donation), and the Socio-Medical Sciences Research Group (HIV/AIDs prevention and substance abuse policy) on HRSA grant-funded research. Dr. Orrego was also a part of an interdisciplinary team addressing HIV prevention through early infant male circumcision in Zambia. More recently, as PI, she has conducted field research in the rural community of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala that engaged local birth attendants in HIV prevention. In addition, Dr. Orrego’s “Latinos Unidos” microgames project addressed COVID-19 misinformation and resiliency among Latinos living with HIV. On both projects, Dr. Orrego utilized a community-engaged approach, and established effective partnerships among key community stakeholders, health providers, and local staff that facilitated culturally tailored intervention content, yielding acceptability and feasibility. Her current project introduces and pilot tests a group prenatal care program (GPNC) into the Jackson/UHealth system to improve minority maternal health outcomes and address clinician implicit bias. Dr. Orrego will extend her work in GPNC to women living with HIV to address retention in care, antiviral adherence, increase breast feeding, address maternal mental health, and improve infant outcomes.
