Sonia Vega-López is a Professor in Nutrition and Assistant Dean of Inclusive Excellence in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. Vega-López is a bilingual and bicultural researcher, native of Mexico. Her research focuses on studying lifestyle factors, particularly those related to diet and physical activity, and how to modify them for the prevention of chronic diseases among Hispanic individuals. During her doctoral studies and post-doctoral training, her research focused on conducting controlled interventions to assess the metabolic effects of specific dietary factors on cardiometabolic disease risk, lipoprotein metabolism, inflammation, and oxidative stress. More recently her work involves (1) studying how diet quality and physical activity affect chronic disease risk in minority and underserved populations; (2) designing and implementing culturally-tailored diet and physical activity interventions for chronic disease reduction among Hispanic families; and (3) assessing the effect of community-based interventions on biomarkers of disease risk.
She received her doctorate in nutritional sciences from the University of Connecticut (2002) and completed her postdoctoral training in the Laboratory for Atherosclerosis and Metabolic Research at University of California-Davis Medical Center (2002-2003) and the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Jean Mayer U.S.D.A. Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (2003-2006).
Education
Ph.D. Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut 2002
M.S. Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut 2000
B.S. Food Chemistry, Universidad La Salle, Mexico 1997
Evaluation of the effects of diet and lifestyle modifications on chronic disease risk factors, obesity, the metabolic disease and diabetes management
Assessment of diet quality and its role in cardiometabolic health among Hispanic individuals
Development of culturally sensitive strategies to aid Hispanics and other high-risk populations in chronic disease prevention
Effect of diets and dietary components on the metabolism of cholesterol and lipoproteins
Publications
Select Recent Publications (past 3 years)
Arias-Gastélum M, Lindberg NM, Leo MC, Gille S, Vaughn KA, Shuster E, LeBlanc ES, Stevens VJ & Vega-López S. A better diet quality based on the Healthy Eating Index-2020 is associated with lower energy intake and age but not with a prediabetes/T2D diagnosis among Hispanic women with overweight/obesity. Nutrition Research. 2025;134:88-98. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2025.01.002
Liedke B, Khatib M, Tabarsi B, Harris M, Wilson SL, Ortega-Santos CP, Mohr AE, Vega-López S & Whisner CM. Evaluating the effects of corn flour consumption on cardio-metabolic outcomes and the gut microbiome in adults with high cholesterol. The Journal of Nutrition. 2024;154(8):2437-2447. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.06.003
Vega-López S, Ayers S, Gonzalvez A, Campos AP, Marsiglia FF, Bruening M, Rankin L, Vega LunaB, Biggs E & Perilla A. Diet outcomes from a randomized controlled trial assessing a parenting intervention simultaneously targeting healthy eating and substance use prevention among Hispanic middle-school adolescents. Nutrients. 2023;15(17):3790. doi: 10.3390/nu15173790
Masek E, Gonzalvez A, Rankin L, Vega-Luna B, Valdez HJ, Hartmann L, Lorenzo E, Bruening M, Marsiglia FF, Harthun M & Vega-López S. Qualitative research on the perceptions of factors influencing diet and eating behaviors among Latinx middle school students. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2023;123(7):1011-1021. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2023.02.009
Colburn AT, Buman MP, Wutich A, Vega-López S, Ohri-Vachaspati P & Kavouras S. Determinants of tap water mistrust among United States Latinx Adults. Journal of Water and Health. 2023;21(6):702-718. doi: 10.2166/wh.2023.267
Peña A, Olson ML, Ayers SL, Sears DD, Vega-López S, Colburn AT & Shaibi GQ. Inflammatory mediators and type 2 diabetes risk factors before and in response to lifestyle intervention among Latino youth with obesity. Nutrients. 2023, 15, 2442. doi: 10.3390/nu15112442
Joseph RP, Ainsworth BE, Vega-López S, Adams MA, Todd M, Gaesser G & Keller C. Cardiometabolic risk factors among insufficiently active African American women with obesity: Baseline findings from Smart Walk. The Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. 2023;38(2):198-204
Joseph RP, Todd M, Ainsworth BE, Vega-López S, Adams MA, Hollingshead K, Hooker SP, Gaesser GA & Keller C. Smart Walk: A Culturally Tailored Smartphone-delivered Physical Activity Intervention for Cardiometabolic Risk Reduction among African American Women. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023;20:1000. Doi:10.3390/ijerph20021000*
Sheehan C, Gotlieb E, Ayers S, Tong D, Oesterle S, Vega-López S, Wendy V, Ruelas DM & Shaibi G. Neighborhood conditions and type 2 diabetes risk among Latino adolescents with obesity in Phoenix. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022;19:7920. doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137920
Szeszulski J, Lorenzo E, Todd M, O’Connor TM, Hill J, Shaibi GQ, Vega-López S, Buman MP, Hooker SP & Lee RE. Early care and education center environmental factors associated with product- and process-based locomotor outcomes in preschool-age children. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022;19:2208. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19042208
NIH/NIMHD – 2U54MD002316-11. Leveraging Bio-Cultural Mechanisms to Maximize the Impact of Multi-Level Preventable Disease Interventions with Southwest Populations.Co-Investigator (PI: Marsiglia F) and Principal Investigator for main project “Multi-level effects of a parenting intervention for enhancing Latino youth health behaviors”
NIH/NHLBI - 1R01HL168170-01. Smart Walk. A culturally-tailored smartphone-delivered physical activity intervention to reduce cardiometabolic disease risk among African American women.
2017-2019 - Investigador Nacional Nivel II, Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), México [National Resarcher Level II, National Researchers Registry, CONACYT, Mexico]
2016 - Dannon Institute's Academic Mid-Career Nutrition Leadership Institute
2014 - Participant, Fourteendth Annual Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials
2013-2014 - Participant, 2013 Cohort; NIH/NHLBI R25 "PRIDE" (Programs to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research) Summer Institute on Mentoring Researchers in Latino Health Disparities (Elder & Talavera, PIs), San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
2012 - Fellow of the American Heart Association and the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism
2011-2012 - Early Career Faculty Research Fellowship, Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center
2007 - Dannon Institute's Nutrition Leadership Institute
