Staff

Armando LopezArmando Lopez, M.P.H.

LRGV AHEC Director

E-mail: armando.lopez@lrgvahec.comPhone: 956-357-7270

Address: 108 N. Jackson Road, Suite 108, Edinburg, Texas 78541

Mr. Armando Lopez has over 20 years work experience in health research and community translation. His educational background includes a Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas Pan American (now University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) and Masters of Public Health from the University of Texas Health-Houston. He begin his community work as research assistant in the University of Texas System Texas-Mexico Border Health Coordination Office (TMBHCO) helping to develop an inventory of the various research and service programs along the Texas-Mexico Border. During his graduate studies, he developed comprehensive data publications that summarized the Texas-Mexico Border counties’ demographics and health statistics. Mr. Lopez’s work with the TMBHCO established diabetes educational and health promotion programs that are still active today. He was part of an NIH research and educational study that coordinated families and schools to work together to control asthma in children. In 2003, Armando joined the UT Health-Houston Centers of Excellence in Brownsville to disseminate childhood obesity programs and develop policy to support children’s health. In 2008, he joined the UT Health-San Antonio to support their effort to increase the health care professionals in the Rio Grande Valley. He helped establish the Lower Rio Grande Valley Area Health Education Center (LRGV AHEC) that aimed to connect students to health professions, health care professionals to the community and the community to health care. After developing various college and high school educational enrichment programs to propel students into the health professional schools, Mr. Lopez managed annually low-cost housing for over 200 medical, dental and other health care professional students conducting part of the training in the Rio Grande Valley. He also helped establish the South Texas Promotora Institute and currently works to develop and coordinate continued education programs for all health care professionals–including incoming AHEC Scholars.​

juana escareno

Juana Escareno, B.A.S., C.H.W.I., C.H.W., M.H.F.A.I.

Academic Programs Coordinator

E-mail: escareno@uthscsa.edu

Phone: 956-230-5144  | Fax: 956-230-5052

Address: 1212 E. Harrison, Suite 165, Harlingen, Texas 78550

Juana Escareño is a certified Community Health Worker (CHW) Instructor (Instructor de Promotor(a) de Salud) and Academic Programs Coordinator for the South Texas AHEC program at the LRGV AHEC in Harlingen Texas. She has over 20 years of experience within the University of Texas system. For the past 10 years, she has been instrumental in planning, implementing and monitoring student and health professional education programs. She served as mentor and supervisor of students, volunteers, consultants, and contractors of various educational programs. In addition, Ms. Escareño managed student housing for health care professional students during their rotations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas.
In 2014, she contributed much to the development of the South Texas AHEC’s Promotores of South Texas Training Course, a CHW certification program where she now serves as a bilingual faculty. Ms. Escareño teaches and translates materials between English and Spanish. She coordinates various health education resources and workforce development programs for the Kleberg Foundation, University of Texas Austin and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV).  Specific programs include Health Literacy, HPV Vaccination, Suicide Prevention, Essential Nutrition and the CHW training materials for cultural sensitivity and appropriateness. The various University of Texas Health-San Antonio organizations receiving Ms. Escareño’s CHW training and support include the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, Train-the-Trainer workshops (offered to CHWs in South Texas by the UTRGV), South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) Scholars Program plus the Office of Student Affairs, Student Support & Wellness Services and the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine. As an advocate for a healthier South Texas, she continues to develop and deliver courses for CHW certifications and continuing education units.