Jina Soto

Jina obtained her Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology from Brigham Young University of Hawaii in 2014. She started her professional career working in behavioral health in La Frontera and Casa de los Niños. While working there, she assisted the community of Tucson by working with children dealing with trauma and their families. This included mental health, behavioral, and substance abuse issues. She learned to work with other agencies and later went on to work at the Pima County Juvenile Court. While working there, she worked with Judges, Attorneys, Investigators and Law Enforcement personnel. She conducted pre-hearing conferences involving child abuse cases. She presented to the Judges the outcomes from the pre-hearing conferences. 

Since working in behavioral health and in the court system, she has gained over six years of experience in clinical research. She started working as a Clinical Coordinator at Responsive Engagement and Cessation In Cancer Health (REACCH) program to help cancer center patients quit using tobacco while receiving treatment. She would recruit new patients, completed behavioral intervention on existing patients, and gathered data. She then started working as a Clinical Research Coordinator II at the Raiven study that involved randomized assessment of influenza vaccine. She also worked on another study Respiratory Virus Transmission Network (RVTN) to learn patterns on how respiratory viruses would transmit within a household. Respiratory viruses included influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Jina now works at the Clinical and Translational Sciences Research Center (CATS) as a Clinical Research Coordinator III in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded RECOVER study.

During her spare time, Jina enjoys spending time with her family, going to the indoor cycling studio, and outdoor activities.