PhD, Sociology
The New School for Social Research
Dr. Aponte-Meléndez is an Investigator at the ISPH. She has conducted research on technology delivered interventions, including web-based interventions and interventions delivered via mobile platforms for people who use drugs, as well as behavioral interventions among migrant Puerto Ricans in New York City. She has worked extensively on HIV and Hepatitis C research among people who inject drugs in her country, Puerto Rico and in NYC in addition to qualitative research on syringe exchange access in New York City.
Dr. Aponte-Meléndez received her PhD in sociology at The New School for Social Research. Her dissertation explored the relationships between prescription opioid misuse, social class, and gender through a qualitative study exploring women’s prescription drug misuse experiences, and the meanings they attach to their drug use, as influenced by social class. She serves as Board President of El Punto en la Montaña, a syringe exchange program in Puerto Rico that she co-founded in 2007.