Danielle Alcena-Stiner, PhD, RN

Bio

As a nurse-scientist with expertise across the translational continuum from biomedical science to community-based research, Danielle Alcéna-Stiner integrates basic science, health literacy, and nursing into interventions to promote adolescent health and wellness through active community engagement.

During Alcéna-Stiner’s community engagements, she found that access to information alone does not reduce health disparities in communities facing social barriers to health and wellness. To address this, she applies an interdisciplinary, community-informed approach that connects youth (adolescents and young adults) with key supportive figures. These include peers, parents, teachers, researchers, and health professionals such as nurses, who serve as youth advocates and promote health literacy.

Current Focus

Dr. Alcéna-Stiner collaborates with colleagues from community-based organizations, the University of Rochester School of Nursing, the Environmental Health Sciences Center, and across the broader university to build interdisciplinary partnerships. These collaborations apply implementation science frameworks and evidence-based methods through an ecological lens. Guided by Community-Based Participatory Research principles, they aim to develop and adapt tools and interventions that identify and address health literacy gaps in partnership with adolescents, young adults, and youth advocates.

Her research focuses on how health literacy, environmental health awareness, and self-care practices among youth influence the prevention and management of infectious diseases. Central to this work is the development and implementation of empowerment-based interventions informed by the perspectives and experiences of adolescents, young adults, and youth advocates.