Rafaela Villacres is the founder and acting president of the PHIIRE organization for the Spring 2021 semester. This is her last semester at the CUNY SPH pursuing a Master of Science degree in Population Health Informatics. Under the mentorship of Dr. Joshi, she has been working on her thesis project, the design, development, and system evaluation of an online population health informatics resource platform. She is also serving as a student ambassador for the program which is what sparked her interest in creating a student club to increase student engagement in the MS population health informatics program.

She is interested in the design and development of mobile health apps to help patients better engage with their healthcare enabling them to make informed decisions. With the insights she gained in the program, she was able to take on a leadership role and is serving as the product manager/UX designer for an autism mobile health app called AIMEE (Autism Intervention with Music for Early-childhood Education) at a start-up. She hopes that the PHIIRE organization can become the model platform in supporting student ideas and business ventures in an academic setting. Rafaela considers herself an avid traveler and has visited over 30 national parks across the United States.