Dr. Reynaldo De Leon Jr.

Deputy Director of Research and Community Engagement, Educational Initiatives

Reynaldo is a Certified Health Education Specialist with years of experience in Community Health and Health Education. Before joining PACT, he coordinated a research project with community health workers (CHWs) and subject matter experts to help revamp an existing CHW curriculum for cardiovascular disease prevention. Reynaldo also previously served as an AmeriCorps Health Educator in Chicago, imparting comprehensive sexuality education and other life skills and health topics to children and adolescents, a role he continued in New York City.

He completed his doctoral training in Health Education at Columbia University, where he also earned a Master of Science in Community Health Education. Reynaldo’s doctoral dissertation focused on collaborating closely with parents/guardians, eliciting their input for the design, feasibility, and content of a parent-based sex education program among families living in homeless shelters and transitional housing in New York City through needs assessment and semi-structured interviews.

He received a Bachelor of Science in Community Health from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2017 with a double concentration in Health Education and Promotion and Health Planning and Administration. Reynaldo received his Associate of Arts degree in 2014 from Harry S. Truman College in Chicago, four years after emigrating from the Philippines.

He has authored several papers and is interested in systematic and scoping review methodology, as well as program planning, implementation, and evaluation. When not reading and writing, Reynaldo enjoys jogging outdoors and playing the acoustic guitar.