Mariana Ortega

Mariana was born and raised in Southwest Florida. In December 2025, she graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and minor in Health Sciences. While completing her undergraduate degree, she defended and published an honors thesis examining the relationships between acculturation, social media use, elevated levels of eating pathology, and body dissatisfaction in Hispanic/Latinx individuals using ecological momentary assessments.

In the future, she hopes to apply to a doctoral program to continue conducting research dedicated to health promotion and reducing health disparities among different populations.

At FRI, Mariana works as a Research Assistant on a NIDA-funded patient preference trial of sublingual versus extended-release buprenorphine telemedicine and pharmacy linkage for individuals re-entering the community from jail.