Alexandra K. Rodriguez

As an interdisciplinary researcher and artist, Alex Rodriguez, PhD, MPH, (she/her) mobilizes evidence about the preventative and rehabilitative impacts of arts engagement for mental health into practices and policies that will create equitable infrastructure for communities to thrive. Currently Rodriguez serves as a Policy Research Strategist with the UF Center for Arts in Medicine and as Adjunct Faculty with the UF College of Public Health & Health Professions.

Rodriguez has a doctorate in public health concentrating in social and behavioral sciences and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar during her doctoral work. Through the UF Center for Arts in Medicine, she has contributed to national and international research, including centering arts engagement as a health behavior, defining arts participation for public health, and co-authoring a WHO report on arts and health in the US. Rodriguez also recently served as a National Research and Impact Associate for One Nation/One Project, a national arts and health initiative across 18 U.S. cities. In addition to her research, Alex recently served in the 2025 Think Tank for the American Journal of Public Health and developed UF’s Honors course, Leveraging the Arts to Promote Public Health.