When it comes to international research combined with community service and student support, Ranjita Misra, Texas A&M associate professor of health education, sets the bar. Her most recent projects, cross-cultural in nature, have extended beyond the United States to Mexico and India making the world her community—a community of respect she is sharing with her students.

A fellow of the Mexican American and Latino Research Center at Texas A&M, one of Misra's projects involves researching different risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease among Mexican Americans and native Mexicans. She is seeking to understand the influence of environmental factors on health behaviors and disease outcomes because of the increasing occurrence of these two diseases among these specific populations.

Misra is also conducting an epidemiological study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which examines changes in the prevalence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and associated risk factors among Asian Indians residing in the United States, as well as in rural and urban India.

Diabetes is the sixth-leading cause of death in America with a greater burden among minority populations. For African-Americans and Hispanics, the likelihood of getting the disease is almost twice as high as for the Anglo population. Asian Indians have genetic predisposition to diabetes by having higher insulin resistance and central obesity (when body fat is localized around the abdomen).

Misra realized that most national studies tend to aggregate Asians and Pacific Islanders into one category that masks group differences. Results from her cross-cultural study showed rural Indians have lower rates of diabetes, but urban Indians and immigrant Asian Indians have high prevalence of diabetes and metabolic syndrome (a combination of medical disorders that increase risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes), providing important data for prevention and intervention studies.

Well-known as a student mentor, Misra encourages her students to broaden their perspective. A native of India, she travels with them to conferences and offers them opportunities to learn from other top researchers. She is the faculty advisor to Texas A&M's Indian Students Association which promotes an understanding of the various cultures of the South Asian subcontinent and seeks to dispel myths and stereotypes about the area and its people. She also is an advisor to the Texas A&M chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma, the national health education honor society, and has received the Distinguished Service Award from the organization for her efforts.

"We are who we are because of our upbringing, education, and experiences," Misra says. "I draw from the uniqueness of different cultures and research experiences to enrich the information I provide to students in the classroom, as well as mentor students in research projects that help raise awareness of serious community health issues across the globe."

For more information, visit Texas A&M University on the Web at www.tamu.edu and itunes.tamu.edu.

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