Alice Cepeda

Alice Cepeda, PhD is a Professor at the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University. She is a sociologist whose research centers on the social epidemiology of drug use and health disparities among minoritized populations, with a strong focus on Mexican-origin and urban communities.

Dr. Cepeda’s work examines substance use, violence exposure, HIV/STI risk, and mental health outcomes through socio-ecological and community-based frameworks. Her scholarship highlights gendered experiences of substance use and risk, particularly among women, and documents how family, neighborhood, and structural determinants shape health behaviors and trajectories. Her research supports the development of culturally tailored, age-graded interventions designed to advance social, economic, and health equity.

Dr. Cepeda has received multiple federal research awards from the National Institutes of Health and has served as principal investigator and co-investigator on National Institute on Drug Abuse–funded studies, including projects on the long-term health consequences of adolescent gang membership and the diffusion of crack cocaine use in Mexico City. She is also a multiple-time scholar of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities Loan Repayment Program.

Her honors include the National Award of Excellence in Research by a New Investigator from the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse and the Junior Scholar Award from the Drinking and Drugs Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She has also held national leadership roles within the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse.