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Maria Rosario (Happy) G. Araneta PhD, MPH, is Associate Dean of Diversity and Community Partnerships and Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Family Medicine. Her research interests include maternal and pediatric HIV/AIDS, birth defects, life course exposures, social determinants of health, and health disparities.   She received her BA in Biology from UCSD and her MPH and PhD in Epidemiology from Yale University She is the co-Principal Investigator of the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS) where UC San Diego is one of 25 participating sites. This longitudinal study, with over 20 years of follow-up, aims to identify the risk factors, mechanisms, and neuropathology of cognitive impairment in persons with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, during the current funding cycle.  Dr. Araneta is the PI of the UCSD Filipino Health Study, a longitudinal study of myriad health outcomes among Filipino men and women, co-investigator of the Rancho Bernardo Study, where she leads research on health disparities in osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease among elder White, Filipino and Black women (Health Assessment Study of African-American Women).  She served as a perinatal epidemiologist for the UC San Diego Mother, Child and Adolescent HIV Program, was a co-investigator on maternal and perinatal HIV studies in Mexico, and co-investigator to assess health advantages and disparities in reproductive outcomes by race/ethnicity and nativity. Her prior research included studies on birth defects and adverse reproductive outcomes among Gulf War veterans, HIV transmission through donor artificial insemination, mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission, and behavioral intervention studies, including restorative yoga, active stretch and Zumba Fitness to reduce components of the metabolic syndrome.

Dr. Araneta received the 2014 American Diabetes Association’s Vivian Fonseca and Nagendran Family Diabetes Research Award for her research on diabetes among Asians and Pacific Islanders, the Best of Care Award as author of the leading 9 publications in "Diabetes Care" in 2015, and the Inaugural Wing Family Lectureship at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School in 2017. She was appointed to a four year term on the NIH Advisory Council for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities from 2015 to 2019, and selected to serve on the NIH Council of Councils from 2018 to 2024.