Hector Olvera Alvarez, Ph.D., PE

  • Associate Professor, School of Nursing
  • Senior Associate Dean for Research, School of Nursing

Biography

I am interested in understanding the combined role of psychosocial stress and environmental factors (e.g., air pollution) in the connection between low socio-economic status (SES) and health outcomes across the life span. Currently, my work focuses on disentangling the biobehavioral pathways through which these social and environmental factors interact to cause health disparities. Building on a broad research experience, skill set (e.g., environmental and social epidemiology, exposure science), and mentorship, I recently structured a set of interdisciplinary conceptual frameworks that jointly explain how socially-disparate susceptibilities — like early life stress — can amplify the impact of environmental factors — like air pollution — on cardiovascular health. Now, I am testing the hypothesis proposed by these frameworks through novel semi-controlled experiments of human exposure to near-traffic air pollution in real-world microenvironments and through the Nurse Engagement and Wellness Study (NEWS), a longitudinal cohort study (n > 500) of predominately Hispanic nursing students from Texas — for which I am the principal investigator — that aims at disentangling the pathways through which early life stress induces life-long sensitivity to social (e.g., stress) and environmental (e.g., green space, metals, air pollution) factors and increases the risk for inflammation-related health problems in adulthood.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 1999, Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juárez
    • M.S., 2002, The University of Texas at El Paso
    • Ph.D., 2006, The University of Texas at El Paso

  • Fellowship

    • JPB Fellow, Environmental Health — Harvard School of Public Health, 2014-2018

  • Certifications

    • Graduate Certificate, Epidemiology — University of Michigan, 2017
    • Professional Engineer — Texas Board of Professional Engineers, 2010

Areas of interest

  • The role of stress and the environment in the link between low SES and health disparity.

Publications

Publications

  • A Bio-Psycho-Social Approach to Understanding Optimism and Pessimism in Response to Stress

    European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
    1. Yok Fong Paat
    2. Trina L. Hope
    3. João B. Ferreira-Pinto
    4. Hector Olvera Alvarez

  • Associations of nature contact with emotional ill-being and well-being

    Cognition and Emotion
    1. Gregory N. Bratman
    2. Ashish Mehta
    3. Hector Olvera-Alvarez
    4. Katie Malloy Spink
    5. Chaja Levy
    6. Mathew P. White
    7. Laura D. Kubzansky
    8. James J. Gross

  • Long-Term Impact of Childhood Adversity on the Gut Microbiome of Nursing Students

    International journal of environmental research and public health
    1. Negin Kazemian
    2. Tony Zhou
    3. Naveen Chalasani
    4. Apurva Narayan
    5. Jose Guillermo Cedeño Laurent
    6. Hector A. Olvera Alvarez
    7. Sepideh Pakpour

  • Socio-Ecologic Influences on Weight Trajectories Among Children with Obesity Living in Rural and Urban Settings

    Childhood Obesity
    1. Zoe Barbour
    2. Cynthia Mojica
    3. Hector Olvera Alvarez
    4. Byron Alexander Foster

  • Susceptibility to stress and nature exposure

    PloS one
    1. Aaron M. Eisen
    2. Gregory N. Bratman
    3. Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez

  • Longitudinal Examination of Hair Cortisol Concentrations and Weight Changes in Preschool-Aged Children of Latino Farmworkers

    Childhood Obesity
    1. Byron A. Foster
    2. Hector Olvera Alvarez
    3. Thalia Padilla
    4. Jerrold S. Meyer

  • Dissertation Topics in Nursing

    Nursing research
    1. Nathan F. Dieckmann
    2. Sydnee A. Stoyles
    3. Jonathan H. Aebischer
    4. Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez

  • Nature and Health

    Ecopsychology
    1. Gregory N. Bratman
    2. Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez

  • Neural and peripheral markers of reward during positive social evaluation are associated with less clinician-rated depression symptom severity in adolescence

    Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology
    1. Zach J. Gray
    2. Grant S. Shields
    3. Stassja Sichko
    4. Theresa Q. Bui
    5. Meghan Vinograd
    6. Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez
    7. George M. Slavich

  • Stress recovery from virtual exposure to a brown (desert) environment versus a green environment

    Journal of Environmental Psychology
    1. Jie Yin
    2. Gregory N. Bratman
    3. Matthew H.E.M. Browning
    4. John D. Spengler
    5. Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez

  • Associations of residential brownness and greenness with fasting glucose in young healthy adults living in the desert

    International journal of environmental research and public health
    1. Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez
    2. Matthew H.E.M. Browning
    3. Andreas M. Neophytou
    4. Gregory N. Bratman

  • Psychobiology of Stress and Adolescent Depression (PSY SAD) Study

    Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Health
    1. Stassja Sichko
    2. Theresa Q. Bui
    3. Meghan Vinograd
    4. Grant S. Shields
    5. Krishanu Saha
    6. Suzanne Devkota
    7. Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez
    8. Judith E. Carroll
    9. Steven W. Cole
    10. Michael R. Irwin
    11. George M. Slavich

  • Psychological impacts from COVID-19 among university students

    PloS one
    1. Matthew H.E.M. Browning
    2. Lincoln R. Larson
    3. Iryna Sharaievska
    4. Alessandro Rigolon
    5. Olivia McAnirlin
    6. Lauren Mullenbach
    7. Scott Cloutier
    8. Tue M. Vu
    9. Jennifer Thomsen
    10. Nathan Reigner
    11. Elizabeth Covelli Metcalf
    12. Ashley D'Antonio
    13. Marco Helbich
    14. Gregory N. Bratman
    15. Hector Olvera Alvarez

  • The affective benefits of nature exposure

    Social and Personality Psychology Compass
    1. Gregory N. Bratman
    2. Hector A. Olvera-Alvarez
    3. James J. Gross

  • Green, brown, and gray

    International journal of environmental research and public health
    1. José Ignacio Nazif-Munoz
    2. José Guillermo Cedeno Laurent
    3. Matthew Browning
    4. John Spengler
    5. Héctor A. Olvera Álvarez

  • Stress and Health in Nursing Students

    Nursing research
    1. Hector A. Olvera Alvarez
    2. Elias Provencio-Vasquez
    3. George M. Slavich
    4. Jose Guillermo Cedeño Laurent
    5. Matthew Browning
    6. Gloria McKee-Lopez
    7. Leslie Robbins
    8. John D. Spengler

  • The Relationship of Childhood Adversity on Burnout and Depression Among BSN Students

    Journal of Professional Nursing
    1. Gloria McKee-Lopez
    2. Leslie Robbins
    3. Elias Provencio-Vasquez
    4. Hector Olvera

  • The value of using seasonality and meteorological variables to model intra-urban PM2.5 variation

    Atmospheric Environment
    1. Hector A. Olvera Alvarez
    2. Orrin B. Myers
    3. Margaret Weigel
    4. Rodrigo X. Armijos

  • Local variability in the impacts of residential particulate matter and pest exposure on children’s wheezing severity

    Population and Environment
    1. Sara E. Grineski
    2. Timothy W. Collins
    3. Hector A. Olvera

  • Modeling particle number concentrations along Interstate 10 in El Paso, Texas

    Atmospheric Environment
    1. Hector A. Olvera
    2. Omar Jimenez
    3. Elias Provencio-Vasquez

  • Health, hope, and human development

    Journal of health care for the poor and underserved
    1. Holly Mata
    2. Maria Flores
    3. Ernesto Castañeda
    4. William Medina-Jerez
    5. Josue Lachica
    6. Curtis Smith
    7. Hector Olvera

  • Ultrafine particle levels at an international port of entry between the US and Mexico

    Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology
    1. Hector A. Olvera
    2. Mario Lopez
    3. Veronica Guerrero
    4. Humberto Garcia
    5. Wen Whai Li

  • Evaluation of land use regression models for NO2 in El Paso, Texas, USA

    Science of the Total Environment
    1. Melissa Gonzales
    2. Orrin Myers
    3. Luther Smith
    4. Hector A. Olvera
    5. Shaibal Mukerjee
    6. Wen Whai Li
    7. Nicholas Pingitore
    8. Maria Amaya
    9. Scott Burchiel
    10. Marianne Berwick

  • Principal component analysis optimization of a PM2.5 land use regression model with small monitoring network

    Science of the Total Environment
    1. Hector A. Olvera
    2. Mario Garcia
    3. Wen Whai Li
    4. Hongling Yang
    5. Maria A. Amaya
    6. Orrin Myers
    7. Scott W. Burchiel
    8. Marianne Berwick
    9. Nicholas E. Pingitore