Roger B. Perales, MPH, RS

UTHSCSA-Laredo Campus Extension

Laredo, TX 78041

Biography

Roger B. Perales, M.P.H., R.S., is currently the Assistant Director of the STEER program, and is a Faculty Associate in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the UTHSCSA. Since 1996 he has served as lead coordinator for STEER, a month-long environmental medicine and public health elective, spending much of his time with students in the field, teaching them about the border region, the Rio Grande, colonias, sanitation, infectious diseases, and air and water pollution.  Perales also holds adjunct faculty positions with the University Of Texas Houston School Of Public Health and the UTHSCSA Allied Health Department.

In 1991, Perales began his public health career with the City of Laredo Health Department, where he held several positions, including food inspector, animal control supervisor, recycling coordinator, health educator, and interim director of the continuous air-monitoring program.  He is a registered sanitarian in the state of Texas. As adjunct faculty at Laredo Community College, he has taught classes in food management and food safety.

Perales earned a bachelors degree in biology from St. Mary’s University, and attended the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.  In December 2005, he received his M.P.H. degree from the University of Texas-Houston School Of Public Health.  His thesis focused on a “Retrospective Assessment of the Environmental House Call Pilot (EHC) Study," which looked at the ability of trained health professionals to measure potential exposure for asthma triggers in the homes of children with asthma.

Perales holds various positions within the Laredo community. He has been appointed vice president of the Board of Directors of the Domestic Violence Shelter, which is part of the Mercy Ministries of Laredo.  He is also a member of Board of Directors of the Mercy Ministries of Laredo, which oversees primary health care clinics, the domestic violence shelter and a food bank.  His awards include the 2003 UTHSCSA Presidential Employee Excellence in Service Award and the 2002 Hispanic Staff Excellence Award.  He has also been appointed to the United Way Board of Directors in Laredo.

He was an invited speaker at the 2006 Annual Conference of the National Environmental Health Association, and presented at the 2006 National Environmental Public Heath Conference.  He has also presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meetings.

Perales participated in the 2007-2008 CDC Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute Cohort III and will serve as a mentor for Cohort IV.

Leadership Development Opportunities

The opportunity to participate in the Environmental Pubic Health Leadership Institute has been a wonderful learning experience for me.  As a coordinator for my program, which also brings together professionals with different backgrounds and depends on many volunteers, I can appreciate all of the effort that goes into running the Institute.  The opportunity to network with the fellows, mentors, directors and coaches is a truly unique experience.  The sessions and the project were very helpful in developing skills that I normally do not use on a daily basis.  Having spent all of one’s professional career in one area of the country can be limiting—for this reason and many others I truly appreciate the opportunity that the EPHLI has afforded me.