College of Health and Human Services

Mary A. Garza

Associate Professor

Education

PhD: Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Health Policy and Management, Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences

MPH: California State University, San Diego, School of Public Health, Master of Public Health Degree, Education & Health Promotion

BS Health Science: University of California, San Diego

Courses Taught

Undergraduate Courses

PH 90: Contemporary Health Issues
PH 114: Health Behavior
PH 131: Principles of Health Education

Graduate Courses

PH 208: Health Promotion
PH 213: Health Planning and Program Evaluation
PH 225: Foundations of Health Promotion Part 1
PH226S: Foundations of Health Promotion Part 2 (Service-Learning)
PH298: Leadership Project
PH 299: Thesis

Dr. Mary A. Garza is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Public Health, where she has taught since the Fall 2018 semester. Born and raised in Fresno, she left to attend graduate school at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD. She loved the East Coast but returned after twenty years for family reasons.

Dr. Garza's research activities encompass the entire intervention research process, from planning and developing to implementing, evaluating, and disseminating research findings, all using a community-based participatory research approach. Trained as a behavioral scientist, she has been working in racial and ethnic health disparities research for the past 20 years, promoting the use of community-engaged research and practice to address the health and well-being of minority and underserved populations. Dr. Garza brings a wealth of experience in community-engaged research, cultural competency, research methods, the design and implementation of community-based interventions, and the management of clinical trials with a focus on health disparities research.

Over the past five years, she has served as the Site Director and Principal Investigator for the Fresno State subcontract titled “Engaging Mothers & Babies: Reimagining Antenatal Care for Everyone (EMBRACE) Research Study”—a five-year, $5.6 million grant funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). This award included a research collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, to conduct a comparative effectiveness study on two prenatal care models aimed at improving birth outcomes among African American and Latine women in the Central Valley, actively engaging the community partners throughout the research process.

She is currently a full-time faculty member in the MPH Program and teaches undergraduate courses for the Public Health major. Dr. Garza has mentored undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students, as well as postdoctoral fellows, in health disparities research. She is strongly committed to training the next generation of public health leaders and ensuring continued progress in increasing minority representation in research and practice.

Selected Publications

Garza MA, Li Y, Fryer CS, Assini-Meytin LC, Ghebrendrias S, Puga CC, Butler Lll J, Quinn SC, Thomas SB. Bridging the gap: Understanding Latino willingness to participate in public health and clinical trials research across diverse subgroups. Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2025 Feb 3;44:101440. doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2025.101440. PMID: 40065835; PMCID: PMC11891600.

Garcia, T. D., & Garza, M. A. (2025). Ethical considerations when conducting health education and health promotion research. In Research Handbook on Health Education, Health Promotion and Diversity (pp. 100-114). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Ranjit A, Odems DS, Pressman A, Garza MA, Kuppermann M, Butcher BDC. Experiences of Discrimination in Medical Settings in a Pregnant Population with Low Income. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2025 Oct 15. doi: 10.1007/s40615-025-02676-3. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41091418.

Hematillake N, Garza MA, Alcala E, Sheikh MY. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steaotic liver disease self-management among the Hispanic/Latino population. Front Public Health. 2025 Apr 28;13:1499467. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1499467. PMID: 40356824; PMCID: PMC12066671.

Sekhon, D., Alcala, E., Kwon, J., Bush, J., & Garza, M. A. (2025). Association Between Particulate Matter 2.5 and Breast Cancer Mortality in California—A Place-Based Cross-Sectional Study. Pollutants, 5(2), 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/pollutants5020011

Keeton VF, Leon-Martinez D, Robles DC, Martinez E, Lessard L, Garza MA, Kupperman M, Chambers BD. (2024) Latina women’s Perinatal Experiences and Perspectives Around Discrimination, Anti-immigrant Policies, and Community Violence, J of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 53(6),635-647.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jogn.2024.07.007

Kuppermann M, Pressman A, Coleman-Phox K, Afulani P, Blebu B, Carraway K, Butcher BC, Curry V, Downer C, Edwards B, Felder JN, Fontenot J, Garza MA, Karasek D, Lessard L, Martinez E, McCulloch CE, Oberholzer C, Ramirez GR, Tesfalul M, Wiemann A. (2024) A randomized comparative-effectiveness study of two enhanced prenatal care models for low-income pregnant people: Engaging Mothers & Babies; Reimagining Antenatal Care for Everyone (EMBRACE). Contemp Clin Trials. 14;143:107568. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107568. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38750950

Afulani PA, Coleman-Phox K, Leon-Martinez D, Fung KZ, Martinez E, Garza MA, McCulloch CE, Kuppermann M. (2023) Psychometric assessment of the US person-centered prenatal and maternity care scales in a low-income predominantly Latinx population in California. BMC Womens Health. 2023 Nov 17;23(1):616. doi: 10.1186/s12905-023-02721-5.PMID: 37978490

Lessard L, Oberholtzer C, Shaver A, Newel G, Middleton E, Kuppermann M, Fuchs J, Garza MA, Rand L, Capitman (2023) Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Design a Patient and Practitioner-Centered Group Prenatal Care Model. J.Health Promot Pract. Sep;24(5):895-902. doi: 10.1177/15248399221098015. PMID: 35658722