Dr. Diana Parra Perez is an Assistant Professor at Prevention Research Center, from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Parra Perez is Associate Director for Faculty and Scholarship, at the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity (CRE2), and Co-Principal Investigator of the NSF ADVANCE AIM for Equity Institutional Grant. Dr. Parra Perez is also a founding member and Co-Lead of the Mindfulness Science and Practice Cluster at WashU. Dr. Parra Perez is steering Committee Member as Events Chair of the SOMOS WashU Affinity Group, and a Scholar at the Institute of Public Health.

Dr. Parra Perez is also an advanced yoga teacher and Mindfulness facilitator.  Dr. Parra’s research seeks to improve health equity and well-being of under-represented populations centered on Latinx immigrant communities by: a) developing and adapting inclusive, culturally-grounded physical activity, nutrition, social connectedness, and mindfulness programs; b) identifying effective dissemination and implementation strategies for community-based programs; and c) understanding how mindfulness and cultural humility can be used as tools for structural change and transformation at the organization and societal levels, addressing and reducing the impacts of racism, bias, and discrimination.

Recent Media Coverage

Pioneering Women: Meet one WashU researcher behind the “modern mindfulness movement” at WashU
HEC Media.

WashU pitches in to reduce health disparities in St. Louis.
The Ampersand. October 30, 2024

Potential of mindfulness to enhance cognitive health in Latinx older adults being studied.
WashU The Source. October 4, 2024

New NSF grant to fund faculty equity programs and new center focused on civic mindfulness.
WashU The Source. September 13, 2024

Happiness Break: A Meditation for Groundedness, With Diana Parra (English & Spanish)
Greater Good Magazine. September 21, 2023