Lesley Guareña

My name is Lesley A. Guareña, and I am a third year Clinical Psychology doctoral student in the neuropsychology track. My research and clinical interests include neuropsychological assessment of Hispanics/Latinos and Spanish-speakers, and understanding how stressful life experiences "get under the skin" and "into the brain" to influence and contextualize cognitive outcomes. I use markers of stress (e.g., cortisol, cardiovascular risk) to better understand mechanisms underlying stress-cognition associations, particularly among Hispanics/Latinos

Research Interests:

• Cognitive aging and neuropsychological assessment of Hispanics/Latinos and Spanish-speakers
• Mechanisms underlying stress and cognition connections (e.g., inflammation, cardiovascular risk)
• Influence of demographic (e.g., education, socioeconomic status) factors on cognition 
   

Selected Publications: 

• Guareña, L. A., Kamalyan, L., Watson, C. W., Karcher, K., Umlauf, A., Morgan, E., Moore, D., Ellis, R., Grant, I., Cherner, M., Moore, R. C., Zlatar, Z. Z., Heaton, R. K., & Marquine, M. J. (2024). Emotional health and its association with neurocognition in Hispanic and non-Hispanic White people with HIV. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS, 30(1), 56–66. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617723000188 
• Kamalyan, L., Guareña, L., Díaz-Santos, M., Suarez, P., Cherner, M., García Alcorn, M., ... Marquine, M. (2022). Influence of educational background, childhood socioeconomic environment, and language use on cognition among Spanish-speaking Latinos living near the US–Mexico border. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617721001028 
• Morlett-Paredes, A., Guareña, L. A., Stickel, A., Schrairer, C., & González, H. M. (2022). To donate, or not to donate, that is the question: Latino insights into brain donation. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12755

Selected Presentations: 

• Guareña, L.A., Huentelman, M.J., & Ryan, L. Cardiometabolic risk mediates the association between perceived stress and episodic memory similarly among Hispanic/Latino and non-Hispanic White individuals. Poster presented at the 15th Annual McKnight Brain Research Foundation Inter-Institutional Meeting, May 15, 2024. Gainesville, FL.  
• Guareña, L.A. & Cantu, P. Childhood Head Injury and Risk of Dementia Later in Life: Results from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS). Poster presented at the International Neuropsychological Society (INS) Annual Meeting. February 12, 2024. New York, NY.

Master's Project:

• Associations Between Stress and Cognitive Performance Among Non-Hispanic White and Hispanic/Latino Individuals  

Updated: 10/24/24