Alfonso R. Latoni is a senior advisor to the Division Director and Scientific Review Officer in the Division of Extramural Research and Training of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He has also served as chief of the Scientific Review Branch. Prior to joining the NIEHS, Latoni was the deputy chief of review in the Scientific Review Branch of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has also served in the Center for Scientific Review, NIH, where he was a scientific review officer in the Health of the Population Integrated Review Group, and later in the Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes Integrated Review Group.
Prior to joining the NIH, Latoni was the program director of the then Minority Affairs Program of the American Sociological Association, and Program Director of its Minority Fellowship Program, which was supported by a T32 Institutional Research Training grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health. Previously, he was an associate professor of sociology, political science, and applied social research at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayagüez.
Latoni’s primary research interests have been at the intersection of social and economic health inequities and disparities among underrepresented populations, with particular emphasis on the underclass, the elderly, and the homeless.
Latoni received a BA in political science from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, his MA in Latin American studies from Georgetown University, and his PhD in sociology from Boston College.