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We were having a casual conversation, and he told me what was offered in Fayetteville. It was a leap of faith for me. I got my acceptance letter and started packing. I had no idea how to get there.- Raffy Luquis
Raffy Luquis lived only three years in Arkansas, but it was time well spent as he earned a doctorate in Fayetteville and has gone on to teach at universities in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. He was recently promoted to associate professor of health education at Penn State Harrisburg.
Luquis, whose name is pronounced Lou-kess, had never been to Arkansas when he applied to a doctoral program at the University of Arkansas. Luquis spent three years earning a doctorate in health science before moving back to the East Coast. He has not been back to Arkansas since his graduation, but he values the ties he made while in Fayetteville and looks forwarding to visiting with fellow Fayetteville graduates when he sees them at professional conferences.
Luquis recently completed a three-year term on the board of directors of the American Association for Health Education. He is also the current president of the board of directors of the AIDS Planning Coalition of South Central Pennsylvania.
When the Puerto Rico native decided in 1993 to pursue a doctorate, a professor of his at Pennsylvania State University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees, told Luquis he was moving to Fayetteville to teach at the University of Arkansas. Brian Williams was on the UA faculty in the 1990s.
"We were having a casual conversation, and he told me what was offered in Fayetteville," Luquis said. "It was a leap of faith for me. I got my acceptance letter and started packing. I had no idea how to get there."
Luquis met Williams in Virginia to drive down with him to Arkansas. Once in Fayetteville, Michael Young, now a University professor of health science, took Luquis under his wing.
"Once I started taking classes, I saw that the program was comparable to others I had looked at in the field of health education," Luquis said. "Mike makes you aware of where you need to be, how to prepare yourself."
The two have collaborated on papers.
"He was a good mentor," Luquis said. "He didn't just say 'Take this class' and then go on."
Luquis studies minority health issues among other teaching and research interests. While people in certain minority groups are not genetically prone to certain diseases, they are affected disproportionately, he explained. African Americans and Hispanics represent 25 percent of the U.S. population, but they comprise 60 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases, he said. He has worked with master's students, researching the effect of socioeconomic status, access to care, language and other barriers to health care that might explain this phenomenon.
Luquis will next concentrate his research on cultural competency.
"Professionals must understand different cultures, racial issues and backgrounds and how they affect the health status of a population," Luquis explained. "I want to look at how professionals such as physicians, nurses and health educators need to prepare themselves."
Luquis would like to visit Arkansas again someday but with his family on the East Coast, it has been difficult to plan a trip. A classmate who visited Fayetteville made an etching of his name on Senior Walk and sent the paper to him.
"I see Mike (Young) at conferences as well as people I graduated with," Luquis said. "I made some pretty good friendships."
Contact:
Heidi Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
(479) 575-3138, stambuck@uark.edu
Page last updated: 7/6/2006 15:54
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