Prior to joining the Foundation in 2020, Lourdes served as Associate Professor and Director of Community-Driven Initiatives at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. Lourdes also worked as Program Officer at the New York State Health Foundation, and from 2004–2012, she co-directed the Urbanism and the Built Environment track in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. As a public health practitioner, and in both academic and philanthropic roles, she collaborates, develops and evaluates initiatives to improve health with people most impacted by health inequities.
Lourdes has a Doctor in Public Health from Columbia University, a Master of Public Health from the University of Connecticut, and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Dr. Rodriguez is a member of the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Roundtable on Population Health Improvement and currently holds an appointment as an Adjunct Faculty with the UTHealth School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus.