Irasema Coronado, a UTEP political science professor has been selected to be part of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council.

Coronado will advise the secretary of the Health and Human Services, the director of the National Institutes of Health as well, and the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Her role will consist off hearing scientific research and environmental health-related grant applications.

“I will give them advice and make sure to speak my concerns about their research,” Coronado said. “If I feel that something is missing or that they should consider other routes I have to make sure I tell them. We don’t have the power to enforce decisions, but we can bring new ideas have better research.”

Coronado feels that she can make a difference, despite her lack of power to make final decisions.

“I always look for opportunities to serve and represent my community, my university and to represent our region,” Coronado said. “I think I’m making a difference because I can get people to think about research opportunities in underserved communities.”

Her first meeting took place yesterday at North Carolina, today she is back at UTEP.

“I’m tired. I just took a plane last night, but I’m happy to be teaching,” Coronado said.

Coronado has been invited to the National autonomous university of Mexico, one of the top universities in the country. There she gave a speech about Texas politics and how important the Latino vote is in the 2016 presidential election.

“It was great. I was invited on short notice but I couldn’t say no,” Coronado said. “Yeah I did have to pull an all-nighter, (but) I wanted go. This is not my job, this is my life.”

In the past Coronado was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for the Environmental Cooperation. While in Quebec, the commission brought in ideas to help solve environmental issues in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.