Dayanna Ramirez Leon

Dayanna Ramírez León is a PhD candidate in the Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences (BSHES) at Emory University. Her research focuses on cultural and structural factors that shape the health of Latino/a/x communities, with a particular emphasis on how ethnicity and acculturation influence beliefs and behaviors related to hereditary cancer screening. She is committed to addressing inequities in early cancer detection through the effective translation of evidence-based public health genomics research into accessible, community-centered interventions.

Dayanna is currently involved in an R37-funded project under the mentorship of Dr. Yue Guan to develop and evaluate health communication tools aimed at increasing uptake of evidence-based family history screening and appropriate follow-up cancer screening in Georgia’s Southwest Public Health District. She also serves as Student Principal Investigator for Tu Voz Tu Salud, a discrete choice experiment designed to understand preferences for family cancer history screening among Latino communities and inform culturally responsive intervention strategies.

She is a member of the Emory Precision Public Health Research Program, a research group that is committed to the advancement of dissemination and implementation of emerging genomic knowledge to promote population health and avert health disparities in Georgia and nationally. which advances the dissemination and implementation of emerging genomic knowledge to promote population health and reduce disparities in Georgia and nationally. She currently serves as one of the BSHES Doctoral Student Representatives and as a Graduate Student Member on the Emory Centro Latinx Advisory Board, where she contributes to student advocacy and community-centered programming. She has also been actively involved with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino, supporting youth engagement and community-centered initiatives. During her master’s training, Dayanna received the Heart of Emory Award for her commitment to increasing the visibility and representation of the RSPH Latinx community through her leadership in La Alianza Latinx.

Dayanna obtained her Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Rollins School of Public Health with a certificate in Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Society and Genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles.