Dr. David Marrero is a distinguished expert in diabetes education and research. His work focuses on medication adherence, community health programs, early diabetes intervention and translational medicine. His research interests also include strategies for promoting diabetes prevention, improving diabetes care practices used by primary care providers and the use of technology to facilitate care and education.

Twice awarded the Allene Von Son Award for Diabetes Patient Education Tools by the American Association of Diabetes Educators, Dr. Marrero has been nominated to Who’s Who in Medicine and Health Care in 2000, served as associate editor for Diabetes Care (1997-2002) and is the associate editor for Diabetes Forecast. He was selected for an Alumni of the Year award from the University of California, Irvine in 2006 and Outstanding Educator in Diabetes in 2008 by the American Diabetes Association. In 2016, he served as the president for health care and education of the American Diabetes Association.

As Executive Director of the UAHS Center for Elimination of Border Health Disparities (CEBHD), Dr. Marrero provides leadership to build strong collaborations with other UAHS centers, such as the Center for Population Science and Discovery; the Center for Elimination of Disparities in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism; the Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine; and the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics. CEBHD is building extensive collaborative efforts to affect treatment of type 2 diabetes in border populations. Working with the Banner – University Medical Group practices in Phoenix and Tucson, representatives from local federally qualified health centers, Arizona Area Health Education Centers (AzAHEC) and other UAHS centers to improve treatments for Type 2 diabetes patients. CEBHD is also establishing Regional Arizona Centers of Excellence in Clinical Research (RACER) sites in Yuma and Nogales to provide mental health services for individuals with diabetes and to develop culturally appropriate and relevant training programs.

Dr. Marrero received a bachelor’s degree (1974), master’s degree (1978) and doctorate (1982) in social ecology from the University of California, Irvine.