Dr. Paula Cuccaro is an assistant professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences and a researcher at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health. She is trained as a developmental psychologist and has over 25 years of experience in public health research and implementation, with a primary focus on improving the mental, physical, and emotional health of children and adolescents. Her work includes the development, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of youth-focused interventions. Dr. Cuccaro is currently conducting research on cancer prevention and screening in medically underserved populations and vaccine communication, with a focus on community and school-based interventions.
Dr. Cuccaro is the 2021 recipient of the UTHealth School of Public Health Award for Excellence in Community Service. She serves as an Associate Director of Community Engagement of The University of Texas Prevention Research Center and is deeply invested in community engagement research and efforts, including developing partnerships with key community-based collaborators around HPV vaccination efforts, engaging youth experiencing homelessness in the adaptation of a mindfulness curriculum, and leading community engagement efforts for multiple COVID-19 vaccination and testing projects.
Dr. Cuccaro is the Program Director of the CPRIT-funded Prevention and Dissemination All for Them projects (PP200017, PP170046, PP230033), a multilevel, multicomponent school-based approach to improve HPV vaccine uptake among medically underserved Texas youth. Due to the success of these projects, Dr. Cuccaro secured ancillary funding from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to further expand All for Them to four additional school districts and populations. She is also the Co-Program Director of Salud en Mis Manos (PP230038, PP190061), a CPRIT-funded breast and cervical cancer screening and prevention program for Latinas in rural and medically underserved areas in 36 Texas counties.
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