SHERMAN, TEXAS—Austin College’s Center for Southwestern and Mexican Studies will host the lecture “A Comparative Overview of Disability in Older Adults in Mexico and the U.S.,” presented by Dr. Leticia Guerrero Pérez on Tuesday, March 8, at 11 a.m. in the College’s IDEA Center, Room 127. The event is free and open to the public. Attendees must wear masks for COVID safety as the speaker is traveling internationally.
Dr. Guerrero is a professor and researcher in the Medical School at the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco in Mexico. Her areas of specialty include social gerontology, rehabilitation, and education.
In addition to teaching at the UJAT, Dr. Guerrero Pérez has more than 20 years of experience at her medical practice in the Unidad Médica Guerrero in Villahermosa, Tabasco.
The Austin College Center for Southwestern and Mexican Studies promotes collaborative learning, with special emphasis on the historical, cultural, social, economic, and political issues facing Texas and Mexico. The center sponsors public lectures and communication with the community and a series of internships and specialized research opportunities for all Austin College students. Dr. Julie Hempel, Austin College associate professor of Spanish, is director of the center and organizer of the upcoming lecture. She has been a member of the Austin College faculty since 2002.
Austin College senior Abby Maeng of Allen, Texas, who met Dr. Guerrero in 2020 during a January Term in Mexico, will introduce the doctor at the lecture.
In 2020, Hempel led a January Term class to Tabasco for her course “Medicine in Mexico.” Dr. Guerrero worked with the students there, and they were certified to do CPR and EKGs through the Mexican medical system (in Spanish). The students also shadowed doctors in various fields at the Unidad Médica Guerrero, observing surgeries and performing some basic procedures (drawing blood, etc.).