Carlos Avalos

Biographical information:
I was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, but I spent a part of my childhood in Weston, FL, a small suburb of Ft. Lauderdale. I obtained my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL, before moving to South Carolina to work in healthcare and later at a life insurance company. I decided to apply to the University of South Carolina’s Epidemiology MSPH degree to better understand health disparities among minority populations and I am currently pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology.

Research interests:
My research interests include mental health illness/substance use, adolescent/young adult health, and access to health care

Thesis/Dissertation:
My Master’s thesis explored prevalence trends of victimization among high school students by race, ethnicity, and gender from 2009 to 2017 using national data from the Youth Risk Factor Surveillance System.