Lindsay Fernandez-Rhodes

Lindsay Fernandez-Rhodes serves as Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health in the College of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University, with dual affiliation at the Penn State Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on genetic and sociocultural determinants of health disparities, particularly among Hispanic/Latino populations through the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL).

Her primary research interests span Genetic Epidemiology, Health Disparities, and Sociocultural Determinants of Obesity. She investigates how genetic ancestry interacts with acculturation, socioeconomic status, and environmental factors to influence cardiometabolic outcomes. Her work integrates multi-omics approaches with life course epidemiology to uncover mechanisms driving health inequities in minority populations.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong emphasis on Hispanic/Latino health across multiple domains: genomic fine-mapping (2023, 2025), epigenetic mediation of socioeconomic effects (2024), pubertal development (2025), cognitive aging (2023), and cardiometabolic disease (2024, 2025). Her methodological innovations include synthetic data applications for privacy preservation (2025) and commentary on genomic inclusion (2023).

Dr. Fernandez-Rhodes actively contributes to major collaborative initiatives including HCHS/SOL, PAGE consortium, and TOPMed. Her work has secured substantial NIH funding for population genomics research, though specific grant details aren't listed in the provided text. She mentors graduate students in biobehavioral health and genetic epidemiology through Penn State's PhD programs.

Her laboratory work centers on the Penn State Cancer Institute's Cancer Control program, with additional collaborations through the Center for Research on Tobacco and Health and Office for Cancer Health Equity. She utilizes HCHS/SOL data infrastructure and Penn State's biostatistics/bioinformatics shared resources for multi-omics analyses.