Lisa Cacari Stone, PhD, is Professor of Health & Social Policy at the College of Population Health, University of New Mexico.  She has dedicated over 30 years of public health leadership, practice and policy work. She is the founding Principal Investigator and Director of the Transdisciplinary Research, Equity and Engagement Center for Advancing Behavioral Health (TREE Center) which is one of twelve research centers of excellence funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD Grant # U54 MD004811-08).  Currently, she is the lead Multiple Principal Investigator for WEAVE New Mexico, a grant funded by the National Institutes of Health Community Engagement Alliance, which addresses food justice and social determinants of hypertension among multi-cultural communities through an integrated, multi- level, community-based primary care and community health worker intervention. 

Her expertise is in national, state and local policy developing and is trusted for her work in translating and disseminating data for policy making with governments, community-based organizations and foundations (e.g. Congressional Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (Senator “TED” Kennedy); NM Legislative Health and Human Services Subcommittee; Con Alma Health Foundation; RWJF Access Project; Pan American Health Organization). Lisa is the founding Director of the Equity in Policy Institute, a training dedicated to building capacity for engaged and evidence-based policy analysis driven by communities in partnership with scholars and policy makers. She is a thought- leader in health equity and has published numerous peer-reviewed policy briefs, public reports and papers. Her science and policy work are supplemented with 15 years of as a behavioral health specialist, state health care administrator and licensed marriage and family therapist. 

Her public health leaders work is complemented with her training in health and social policy and in the social determinants of health at The Heller School, Brandeis University and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is an expert member of the research group with the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission, member of the National Hispanic Science Network, former board member to the Prevention Institute (Oakland) and previous WK Kellogg Fellow in Health Equity and Policy. In 2019, she received the Faculty Research Excellence Award in Population Health Science from University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.  In January 2025, Lisa will start her elected post as Santa Fe County Commissioner (District 2).