Media and Public Outreach

Media Coverage

My research has been featured in: The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Vox, The Hill, Bloomberg News, CNN, Kaiser Health News, CBS News, ABC News, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, New Scientist, Earther, Noticias Sin, Noticel, Telemundo, El Economista America, Primera Hora, El Nuevo Dia,  and Caribbean Business. Part of a Washington Post Editorial. Featured in Plan de Contingencia as a Footnote (Nota Al Calce).

Additional coverage is listed here: https://jamanetwork.altmetric.com/details/45909223/news

Op-Eds (Opinion Editorial)

  1. Facts are facts, President Trump: A professor who studied Puerto Rico’s death toll responds, an op-ed in response to denials about excess death toll estimates. Published in New York Daily News (September 14, 2018).
  2. Puerto Ricans don’t trust official information on Hurricane Maria an article addressing the level of trust on official information by Puerto Ricans living in the United States following Hurricane Maria. Published in The Conversation (June 15, 2018).
  3. The Paradox of the Plan for Puerto Rico, op-ed about the proposed elimination of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics. Published in El Nuevo Día, one of the principal newspapers in Puerto Rico (May 4th, 2018)
  4. Why Puerto Rico’s death toll from Hurricane Maria is so much higher than officials thought an article addressing the differences in official death count following Hurricane Maria and independent estimates. Published in The Conversation (January 3, 2018). *Most read article written by a Penn State faculty member in January 2018. A second version was published on May 31, 2018.
  5. Will Puerto Ricans return home after Hurricane María? an article where I discuss the intentions to return to Puerto Rico of those who came to U.S. following Hurricane María. Published in The Conversation (November 17, 2017).
  6. Time to release the vital statistics, a column about data transparency in the aftermath of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico. Published in El Nuevo Día, one of the principal newspapers in Puerto Rico (November 16, 2017).
  7. Population of Puerto Rico: A ship without a destiny, column about population projection methods. Published in El Nuevo Día, one of the principal newspapers in Puerto Rico (April 27, 2017).

Demographic News

  1. Puerto Rico, still reeling from Hurricane Maria, faces major challenges. Discussed the events surrounding the miscount of deaths in Puerto Rico following Hurricane María. Published by ABC News (Match 18, 2018).
  2.  Exodus from Puerto Rico grows as island struggles to rebound from Hurricane María. Discussed the preliminary findings of excess passenger flow and the limitations of administrative records and estimation techniques to address migration from Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane María. Published by the Washington Post on March 6, 2018.
  3. Puerto Rico deaths related to Hurricane María continued for months after the storm, data suggest. Spotlight on most recent analysis on excess deaths in Puerto Rico, published by Los Angeles Times (February 28, 2018). Published in print as “Puerto Rico death toll revisited” by LA Times on March 2, 2018.
  4. Puerto Rico asks a DC university to review possible Hurricane María deaths. Discussed the appointment of an independent team to review deaths associated with Hurricane María, published by CNN (February 22, 2018).
  5.  ‘Exodus’ from Puerto Rico: a visual guide. Discussed the limitations of administrative records within the discussions of migration following climate disasters, published by CNN (February 21, 2018).
  6.  Puerto Rico orders review and recount of Hurricane deaths. Highlighted the importance of accurate death counts for future climate disaster planning, published in the New York Times (December 18, 2017)
  7. Demographers estimate more victims after Hurricane María. Reported excess deaths following Hurricane María published in El Nuevo Día one of the major newspapers in Puerto Rico. (November 27, 2017)
  8. Penn State researcher studies response to Hurricane María. Penn State News (October 31, 2017)
  9. Immigration Concerns with Justin Betti (May 11, 2017), ABC 23 (WATM). Provided information about the profile migrants pre and post-1980s and recent trends in net migration.
  10. Penn State Offering new degree in applied demographics, Centre Daily News (November 25, 2016)

Invited Presentations

  1. Leveraging Vital Statistics to Assess the Impact of Environmental Disasters: the case of Puerto Rico. Texas Demographic Conference (May 2018).
  2. Leveraging Social Media and Diasporas to collect information following climate disasters: the case of Puerto Rico. Graduate Student Methodology Workshop in Hard to Reach Populations, Population Research Institute. (May 2018).
  3. Deaths and suicide in Puerto Rico following Hurricane María. Resiliency following an Environmental Disaster Symposium, San Juan Bautista Medical School (April 2018).
  4. County-level excess deaths in Puerto Rico following Hurricane María. Lamento Borincano: Puerto Rican Sites of the Catastrophic, 1968/2018 at Princeton University (March 2018).
  5. Deaths in Puerto Rico following Hurricane María: a public health issue. Department of Demography at the University of Puerto Rico – Medical Sciences Campus (December 2018).
  6. Caregiving received by older adults in Puerto Rico. Family Demography Working Group, Population Research Institute (November 2018). In collaboration with Dr. Sarah Patterson.
  7. Annual Group Quarter Population Report: Establishment and Implementation in Puerto Rico. Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates (April 2014). In collaboration with Dr. Mario Marazzi at the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.

 Other News

  1. PSU Nittany Lion Shrine celebrates 75th birthday. Discussed the significance of the Lion Shrine in Penn State. WJAC.
  2. Puerto Rico Planning Board assumes control of the Statistics Institute. Removed my name from consideration for the position of Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics due to political interventions. El Vocero (July 26, 2017)
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