“Ignacio UFO Mural” made by Ignacio Garcia, located at 5055 E. Speedway in Tucson AZ
Dr. John M. Ruiz, Ph.D.
He/Him/His/El
Department of Psychology
Dr. John M. Ruiz is a Professor of Clinical Health Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona. He serves in multiple roles including as the Assistant Director for Strategy and Workforce Development in the University of Arizona Cancer Center and he is a member of the Sarver Heart Center, the Center on Health Disparities, Center on Aging, the Hispanic Center of Excellence, and the BIO 5 Institute. He has additional adjunct appointments in Public Health and Family Studies.
Dr. Ruiz is a population health scientist with a program of research emphasizing prevention, resilience, and equity. His NIH-funded research examines relationships between individual level psychosocial factors, social behaviors, and cardiovascular and cancer diseases with an emphasis on biobehavioral mechanisms. In addition, Dr. Ruiz has recognized expertise in sociocultural aspects of racial/ethnic health disparities, particularly the epidemiological phenomenon referred to as the Hispanic Health Paradox. His current work focuses on sociocultural factors that may help explain paradoxical survival differences in the context of lung cancer.
Dr. Ruiz is the current Editor-In-Chief of APA’s Health Psychology (2023-2028) and he serves as the 2025 Chair-Elect of APA’s Council of Editors. He has active leadership roles in multiple professional societies including as Past-President of the Behavioral Medicine Research Council (BMRC). Dr. Ruiz serves on the editorial boards of several journals (Journal of Latina/o Psychology, Health Psychology, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Journal of Behavioral Medicine), is a past associate editor for 4 journals (PLOS One, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Research in Personality) including Senior Associate Editor of Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and has guest edited several special issues.
Dr. Ruiz is also a leader in the push for health equity as Past Chair for APA’s Committee on Socioeconomic Status (CSES), member of the inaugural APA Health Equity Committee, and appointment to the 2021 APA Presidential Task Force on Health Equity for which he received a 2021 APA Presidential Citation. He is a permanent member of the NIH Behavioral Medicine Interventions and Outcomes (BMIO) study section, and he served on the external advisory board for NIH’s Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) effort.
In 2022, Dr. Ruiz began a 4-year, federal appointment to serve on the 16-member, US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) which helps to guide national healthcare policy through its recommendations. Dr. Ruiz is an elected fellow of the Association of Psychological Science, Society for Health Psychology (APA, Division 38),American Psychosomatic Society/Society for Biopsychosocial Medicine, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.
Teaching Philosophy
Dr. Ruiz’ teaching philosophy emphasizes accessibility without compromising the integrity of the material. He uses a wide variety of presentation methods including lectures, small and large group discussions, multimedia presentations, technology resources, modes of learning, individual and expert panels, academic texts articles, and other mainstream publications. Dr. Ruiz often structures his courses to include lecture and group discussion/applied exercises to help students consolidate understanding and reinforce through shared experiences. His approach to student evaluation is based on a student’s performance in multiple contexts depending on class size.
Graduate Courses (Syllabi available upon request)
- PSYC 587 Foundations in Health Psychology
- PSYC 699 Cardiovascular Psychophysiology
Undergraduate Courses (Syllabi available upon request)
- PSYC 381 Abnormal Psychology
- PSYC 383 Health Psychology
- PSYC 382 Health Disparities
And the rest of our SuRRF Family!!!
Current Graduate Students
Riley O’Neill
She/Her/Hers/ Ella
Riley is a clinical psychology PhD candidate with an emphasis on Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. She graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelors in Psychology and Spanish. Riley examines how stress and sociocultural contexts contribute to socially driven mechanisms of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Specifically, her research focuses on refining ecologically valid characterizations of stress to clarify its cardiovascular impacts. To support this work, Riley received an NHLBI NRSA Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (1F31HL170513). In her free time, she enjoys upcycling thrifted finds, catching live music, and watching movies.
- Email: Rmoneill@arizona.edu
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zQmpwQkAAAAJ&hl=en
- Bluesky: @rileym-oneill.bsky.social
Daniel Armando Hernandez
He/Him/His/El
Daniel Hernandez is a first generation clinical psychology doctoral student, specializing in health psychology at the University of Arizona. Mr. Hernandez primarily serves as a teaching assistant and instructor, supporting undergraduate psychology education. His research program investigates how biopsychosocial factors such as stress, social vigilance, and sociocultural resilience influence Hispanic health outcomes, utilizing psychophysiological methodologies. Clinically trained in evidence-based practice, Mr. Hernandez provides psychological services through the Department of Psychology’s Behavioral Health Clinic, conducting assessments and delivering interventions. Mr. Hernandez is a Southern California native, that completed his associate’s degree at Arizona Western College before transferring and receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona. His hobbies include spending time with his family, walking his dogs, traveling and fishing.
- Email: danielh5@arizona.edu
Amelia Ibarra Mevans
She/Her/Hers/Ella
Amelia is a doctoral student in the University of Arizona’s Clinical Psychology program with a minor in Health Psychology. Her research explores how differences in stress appraisal and sociocultural resilience may contribute to better health outcomes in Hispanic/Latinxs. Specifically, she is interested in studying how stress exposure differs from stress experience in Latinxs, potentially due to sociocultural mechanisms like higher social support and collectivism, leading to lower risk for cardiovascular disease. During her free time, Amelia enjoys hot yoga, cooking, drinking coffee with friends, watching movies at The Loft and chilling at the Cat Café.
- Email: ameliaibarram@arizona.edu
Current Undergraduate Students
Hayden Sierra Puttlitz
She/Her/Hers
Hayden Puttlitz is an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, majoring in Psychological Sciences with a minor in Spanish. She is a W.A. Franke Honors student who assists with various projects in the lab as a research assistant. Her research interests include developmental psychopathology, emotion science, and psychophysiology. She is especially passionate about studying the causes and treatments for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents, as well as utilizing psychophysiological measures to investigate how natural environments impact affective states. Hayden has previously worked in the Neuroimaging and Cognition Laboratory and the Human Memory Laboratory at the University of Arizona, as well as the Emotion, Health, and Psychophysiology Laboratory at Yale University. Upon completing her undergraduate degree, she plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Originally from Colorado, Hayden enjoys spending her free time in nature with her friends, family, and dog.
Amanda Tien-Vo Le
She/Her/Hers
Amanda Le is a Ronald E. McNair scholar and undergraduate student at the University of Arizona, pursuing dual degrees in Medicine and Applied Humanities with a minor in Japanese. Amanda is an Undergraduate Research Assistant at the SuRRF Lab, helping with various research projects, and the Outreach Assistant for CERCLL (Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy), a non-profit organization and national language resource center. Her research interests include health psychology and racial/ethnic health disparities. Specifically, she is interested in studying how sociocultural mechanisms can help underserved communities build resilience to adversity caused by geopolitics. She is passionate about exploring the intersections between science and humanity. Originally from Virginia, Amanda enjoys sharing meals with friends, sweet treats, and going to concerts!
Sophia Margaret Gotham
Sophia Gotham is an undergraduate student studying psychology at the University of Arizona. Ms. Gotham interns for the REACH Lab and for CAPS, and she works as a research assistant for the SuRFF Lab. Sophia is interested in counseling and relationships. Sophia is a Kansas City native in her third year at the University of Arizona. Her hobbies include hiking, shopping, spending time with family and friends, and being outside.
SuRRF Lab Alumni
Melissa Flores, PhD
She/Her/Hers
About Melissa…
Dr. Flores (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona. As an interdisciplinary scientist, her primary focus is understanding the complex interplay of social and structural factors contributing to health disparities within the Latino/x population and other historically excluded groups. Her approach is centered on resilience while employing advanced quantitative methods to model social environments. Her ultimate goal is to establish links between these environments and health outcomes, such as cardiovascular health and disease across the lifespan.
Dr. Flores is also a distinguished National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) R00 MOSAIC Fellow. Within her MOSAIC project, she leverages machine learning techniques to optimize cardiovascular risk assessment specifically tailored to the Latino/x communities.
Dr. Flores is dedicated to fostering inclusivity in academia. She actively engages in mentoring activities across various academic disciplines and is committed to strengthening the academic pipeline for scholars from underrepresented backgrounds.
Email: maflor@arizona.edu
Megan Irgens, PhD
She/Her/Hers
About Megan…
Megan Irgens earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona and completed her clinical internship at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in the Clinical Psychology Training Program. She is currently a NIDA T32 fellow in the Juvenile (in)Justice Lab at UCSF. Her research focuses on expanding access to brief evidence-based behavioral health interventions for youth involved in the juvenile legal system, particularly for youth living in rural communities.
Email: megan.irgens@ucsf.edu
Veronica Kraft, Ph.D.
About Veronica…
Dr. Veronica Kraft is a Postdoctoral Scholar in Health Psychology at the Ohio State University (OSU) under the mentorship of Dr. Joshua M. Smyth. Her primary role is to investigate how dynamic stress responses influence adherence to promotive health behaviors, informing the development of scalable interventions. Her independent research program integrates ecological momentary assessment (EMA), geospatial data, and ambulatory biomarker monitoring to examine how dynamic stress responses unfold in everyday life and whether ecological context, particularly green space exposure, may buffer against cardiovascular health risks in midlife adults.
Prior to joining OSU, Dr. Kraft was a Postdoctoral Research Associate I in the SuRRF lab, where she led a pilot study using EMA and ambulatory monitoring to examine within-person, momentary associations between green space exposure and proximal cardiovascular health indicators and perceived stress. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology (Cognition and Neural Systems) from the University of Arizona in 2023, where her dissertation examined how early-life and current environmental factors shape stress perception and, in turn, influence reproductive health among Hispanic women in the US and Mexico. When not analyzing data or writing grants and manuscripts, Dr. Kraft enjoys spending time in nature, exploring new coffee shops, and relaxing with her cat, Loki.
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Twidv4sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Ella C. Salem
About Ella…
Ella Salem was an undergraduate research assistant with the SuRRF lab. She then continued as a post-bacc researcher over the summer working on EMA data analysis and the manuscript writing of her honors thesis. Her research interests center on anxiety disorders, obsessive–compulsive symptoms, and disordered eating, with a particular focus on mindfulness-based and transdiagnostic interventions. She is especially interested in comorbid symptom presentations and the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to capture real-time psychological processes. Ella earned her BS in Psychology from the University of Arizona, where she completed an honors thesis examining mindfulness and disordered eating in college students using EMA. She is currently applying to Clinical Psychology PhD programs. Outside of academics, Ella enjoys practicing yoga and spending time outdoors.
Email: ellasalem@arizona.edu
Gerardo A. Rios
About Gerardo…
Gerardo Rios is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona, having earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychological Science. Currently, Gerardo is applying to medical schools and spends his time at a local medical clinic as a lead technician, where he facilitates diagnostic tests for patients with brain injury. There, he also manages the clinic’s internship program and contributes to retrospective clinical studies for novel therapies and interventions in the field of sports medicine. Mr. Rios is interested in structural and cultural barriers to health and is deeply inspired to address them as a physician serving in underserved communities. As an undergraduate student in the SuRRF Lab, Mr. Rios’ main focus revolved around how psychosocial and psychocultural factors are correlated with health outcomes like cardiovascular disease, as well as health behaviors such as vaccination. During his senior year, he was awarded a grant that enabled him to conceptualize and conduct a community-based study with the local public health group Nosotros Comprometidos a Su Salud, which he is currently working to develop into his first written manuscript for publication. When not in the lab or clinic, Gerardo enjoys taking care of his furry four-legged daughter, Autumn, shredding on the electric guitar, improving his golf swing, and drinking specialty coffee.
Email: gerardorios@arizona.edu
Contact Information:
Email: johnruiz@arizona.edu
Mailing Address:
PO Box 210068, Tucson, AZ 85721-0068
Office Location:
Psychology Building Room 217F