Angie V. Sanchez, MD, MPH

Dr. Angie V. Sanchez is a public health physician-scientist who graduated from medical school in 2012 at Fundacion Universitaria San Matin in Cali, Colombia. She also holds a master’s in public health from the University of Massachusetts. With over ten years of experience in translational medicine, her work has encompassed outpatient care, basic research on the molecular basis of disease, translational research on therapeutic agents in disease models, and the development of diagnostic strategies for degenerative human disorders. Her research focuses on investigating the science of community engagement and community research to eliminate health and research disparities. Dr. Sanchez’s experience and interest in community health have made her dedicated to developing new strategies to improve health access and quality of life in minorities according to their individual needs. She is familiar with interdisciplinary collaboration among clinicians, basic researchers, and program managers, working towards successfully completing research projects and federal and foundation funding.

Her medical education was deeply rooted in community health, having been trained in hospitals and community health centers (CHCs) located in underserved neighborhoods of Cali. Her studies and clinical experience are focused on family and community health. As a primary care physician (PCP) in a public hospital in a small southwest town in Colombia, she served rural and low-income populations, underscoring her commitment to addressing health disparities.

After moving to the United States, she completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the Schepens Eye Research Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital, both affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Her contributions to the science of community engagement and clinical research led her to earn a significant grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) as a co-principal investigator and then to be promoted to an instructor in investigation in Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where she continued serving vulnerable communities across Metro-Boston to improve the science of community research while investigating strategies to eliminate barriers to healthcare services and research. 

At the end of 2022, she moved to her native Colombia to be the Director of Science at the Colombian Ministry of Science, where I worked to improve Science in Colombia with a focus on improving accessibility to research opportunities for junior investigators or research centers located in small cities in the country.

Since November 2023, Dr. Sanchez has been the Health Innovation Officer at the Louisiana Center for Health Innovation at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she is working on advancing the field of health innovation research, particularly in projects that address social determinants of health and factors contributing to health disparities.

Education

Master of Public Health
University of Massachusetts, Worcester MA
2021
Coursework: Global health in the developing world;
International Health, Population, and Development; Application
of Social and Behavioral Theories in Public Health Interventions,
International Organizations and Population Health.

General Medicine
2012
Fundacion Universitaria San Martin, Colombia
Medical Internship in General Medicine, Fundacion Clinica
Shaio and Hospital El Tunal; Bogota, Colombia 2012

Contact Information

Angie V. Sanchez,  MD, MPH

Health Innovation Officer

Informatics Research Institute

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

337.482.0694

angie.sanchez@louisiana.edu

También hablo español

Honors and Scholarships
2021

• Pillars of Excellence Awards, Mass General Brigham (MGB)
  • Community Messengers Team: In recognition of outstanding performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2019

• Junior Investigator Travel Award, Parkinson Study Group (PSG)
  • To promote diversity at the PSG annual meeting.

2016

• CADASIL Summer Fellowship Award cureCADASIL Association
  • Project: Development and characterization of a knockout mouse model in neurogenesis.
• Career Development Award - Neuroscience Scholar Program (NSP) Associate, Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
  • Program focused on professional development.

Publications

• Ison JM, Jackson JD, Hemley H, Willis A, Siddiqi B, Macklin EA, Ulysse C, Fitts MS, Pham TT, Afshari M, Agarwal P, Aminoff M, Bissonnette S, Fullard M, Khan TS, Larson DN, Wielinski C, Sanchez AV. Fostering Inclusivity in Research Engagement for Underrepresented Populations in Parkinson's Disease: The FIRE-UP PD study. Contemp Clin Trials. 2024 Jul 5;144:107619. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107619. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38971301.
• Sanchez AV, Ison JM, Hemley H, Jackson JD. Diversifying the research landscape: Assessing barriers to research for underrepresented populations in an online study of Parkinson's disease. J Clin Transl Sci. 2024 Feb 1;8(1):e34. doi: 10.1017/cts.2024.20. PMID: 38384928; PMCID: PMC10879993.
• Angie V. Sanchez, Juliana M. Ison, Helen Hemley, Allison Willis, Bernadette Siddiqi, Eric A. Macklin, Christine Ulysse, Marissa Reynolds, Michael A. Schwarzschild, Jonathan D. Jackson, Designing the fostering inclusivity in research engagement for underrepresented populations in Parkinson's disease study, Contemporary Clinical Trials, 2022, 106713, ISSN 1551-7144, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2022.106713. 
• Amarnani D+, Sanchez AV+, Wong LL, Duffy BV, Ramos L, Freitag SK, Bielenberg DR, Kim LA, & Lee NG. Characterization of a Murine Model of Oxazolone-Induced Orbital Inflammation. Translational vision science & technology. 2020;9(8):26. https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.9.8.26. + These authors contributed equally to this work.
• Choi CJ, Jakobiec FA, Zakka FR, Sanchez AV, Lee NG. Ocular surface squamous neoplasia in a patient with hepatitis C. JAMA Ophthalmology. 2017. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2017.2967.
• Bigger-Allen AA, Machuca-Parra AI, Sanchez AV, Boutabla A, Cardona-Vélez J, Saint-Geniez M, Christian Siebel, Kim LA, DʹAmore PA, Arboleda-Velasquez JF. Therapeutic antibody targeting of Notch 3 signaling prevents mural cell loss in CADASIL. The Journal of Experimental Medicine. 2017. pii:jem.20161715. doi: 10.1084/jem.20161715.
• Ung C+, Sanchez AV+, Shen L, Davoudi S, Ahmadi T, Navarro Gomez D, Chen CJ, Hancock H, Penman A, Hoadley S, Consugar M, Restrepo C, Shah VA, Arboleda-Velasquez JF, Sobrin L, Gai X, Kim LA. Whole Exome Sequencing Identification of Novel Candidate Genes in Patients with Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy. Vision Research. 2017. pii: S0042-6989(17)30054-8. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2017.03.007   + These authors contributed equally to this work.
• Lam JD, Oh DJ, Wong LL, Amarnani D, Park-Windhol C, Sanchez AV, Cardona-Velez J, McGuone D, Stemmer-Rachamimov AO, Eliott D, Bielenberg DR, van Zyl T, Shen L, Gai X, D’Amore PA, Kim LA, Arboleda- Velasquez JF. Identification of RUNX1 as a mediator of aberrant retinal angiogenesis. Diabetes. 2017; db161035.