Thursday, June 30, 2022
, assistant professor and director of the Epidemiology Program at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth has been named as a 2022 Fellow of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
This distinction honors infection prevention professionals who are advanced practitioners and leaders within their field.
Cervantes is among 35 new APIC Fellows selected this year. The organization is represented by 113 chapters, including three internationally. The honorees were recently recognized at APIC鈥檚 annual conference and will be highlighted in the fall 2022 issue of Prevention Strategist.
Through her HSC teaching, student mentorship and community service, Cervantes is active in helping North Texas prepare for community health emergencies and prevent the spread of contagious outbreaks.
In 2021, she was honored as a Fort Worth Inc. Person of the Year for being one of the 鈥�400 Most Influential People,鈥� helping to protect the community鈥檚 health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through countless media interviews on television, radio, print and online, she responded to pandemic questions and served as an experienced, science-based source of information and support to the public. She also provided nursing homes in North Texas and those serving the aging population with accurate and timely information to prevent the spread of infection in this highly susceptible population.
She can be seen in a 2021 on 鈥淧erson-Centered Prevention: The Key to Pandemic Progress鈥� discussing the important role that individuals can play in battling COVID-19 misinformation and actively promoting community health protections.
Dr. Cervantes taught as an adjunct faculty member for seven years before joining HSC in her current role. She is a graduate of the HSC School of Public Health, where she received both her MPH and DrPH degrees in epidemiology.
She has previously served as a bioterrorism response microbiologist and epidemiologist for Tarrant County Public Health and as chief epidemiologist for the Texas Department of State Health Services, Health Service Region 2/3, which provides services to 49 counties in North Texas. In that role, Dr. Cervantes led a team of seven epidemiologists to implement infectious disease surveillance and prevention and control activities in response to major public health concerns, including Ebola and the 2009 influenza pandemic.