Hilda Lloréns, professor of anthropology and gender and women’s studies at the University of Rhode Island, is the inaugural recipient of the Applied Anthropology Research Award from the Hispanic Health Council, a community-based organization that promotes equity and addresses health disparities for Hispanics, Latinos, and other vulnerable communities through research, advocacy, and culturally resonant services.
Dr. Lloréns began her scholarly career studying why some residents in certain communities develop health issues and how to create policies to improve overall well-being. She has since expanded her research to critiquing structural inequality and dismantling notions of power that have been taken for granted, while maintaining a particular focus on community health in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and among Latinx populations.
Currently, Dr. Lloréns is on leave from the University of Rhode Island, serving as the 2025-2026 Cornille Distinguished Visiting Professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, the top-rated women’s college in the United States. There, she is working on a new book about Latinxs accessing the outdoors across the country. She has authored several other books, including her most recent monograph, Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice (University of Washington Press, 2021).
Dr. Lloréns received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Eastern Connecticut State University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. both in anthropology from the University of Connecticut.