Cecilia Cárdenas

Honorary Co-Chair for Desde 1976: Education, Culture, and Community

Cecilia Cárdenas (she/her) is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she earned a degree in Neurobiology and a Certificate in Chican@ & Latin@ Studies in the Spring 2020. While at UW-Madison she was a Mercile J. Lee Chancellor’s Scholar, member of the Professional Association of Latine Students for Medical Career Access (PALMA), and a Peer Mentor Tutor at the Physics Learning Center (PLC). She also participated in the Health Professions Shadowing Program (HPSP), shadowing health providers at UW-Madison in a variety of disciplines. Her introduction into research began as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Dale Bjorling’s lab during her time in the Summer Program for Undergraduate Urological Research at UW-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Following graduation, she worked as a Health Unit Coordinator at Meriter Hospital in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), supporting clinical teams in a fast-paced care environment while also forming connections with patient families during the COVID pandemic. Since March 2022, Cecilia has served as the Lead AHEAD Study Clinical Research Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The AHEAD study is the largest Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) pharmaceutical clinical trial in the world, working with 1,400 participants across 100 sites globally. Cecilia has worked with 30 participants and their study partners for over 4 years, developing deep connections with them, while ensuring that the AHEAD study runs according to protocol. Her current work contributes to research which advances patient care and scientific understanding of AD, while also paving the way for groundbreaking treatments for participants and their families for the first time in decades. She is currently mentoring undergraduate pre-med students who will one day become the new face of medicine. She continues to dream of becoming a physician who will advocate for the needs of those who are usually left out of clinical and experimental treatments, including Black and Brown people, the unhoused, addicts, and veterans.