Cora de Leon
Clinical Associate Professor; Director of the MSW Program
PhD, MPH, LCSW
Areas of Expertise: Depressive disorders; child bereavement; tobacco policy
Biography
Cora de Leon is a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the MSW Program at NYU Silver. Dr. de Leon has more than two decades of clinical and research experience focused primarily on depressive disorders and child bereavement. She is interested in how research informs policy, particularly in the area of tobacco use. Dr. de Leon has been a member of multiple research teams, examining such topics as rates of affective disorders in primary care facilities for men, effectiveness of short term treatments for depression, and testing a cognitive behavioral intervention among active drug users.
Dr. de Leon’s doctoral work focused on federal tobacco policy and subsequent rates of smoking in New York City. She has worked on several multi-site research teams examining such issues as associations between Parkinson's Disorder and affective disorders, depression among adolescents, and cognitive behavioral interventions among high risk non-injecting drug users
Dr. de Leon has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College on subjects ranging from research methodology to comprehensive health education. She was previously Director of Silver’s Undergraduate Program and Coordinator of Silver’s Westchester MSW program. She is a member of the Sarah Lawrence College Institutional Review Board.
She received her MSW and PhD from NYU Silver, her MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and a BA from NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Publications
Gaps in smoking cessation counseling administered by healthcare providers to BIPOC gay men who smoke daily in the U.S.
Kelley, N., Maglalang, D. D., Suh, R., Bello, M. S., de Leon, C., Moitra, E. & Ahluwalia, J. S., Feb 2025,
In : Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment. 169, 209590.
Weaving Our Kuwentos (Stories) toward Ginhawa (Aliveness): Pilipinx American Social Work MotherScholars Enacting Praxes of Survival and Thrivance in the Academy
La Torre, J. C., Sevillano, L., Mason, L. R., Trinidad, A. M. O. & de Leon, C., Dec 2024,
In : Genealogy. 8, 4, 127.
Faculty Respond to COVID-19: Reflections-on-Action in Field Education
Dempsey, A., Lanzieri, N., Luce, V., de Leon, C., Malhotra, J. & Heckman, A., Mar 2022,
In : Clinical Social Work Journal. 50, 1, p. 11-21
11 p.
Implementing the federal smoke-free public housing policy in New York City: Understanding challenges and opportunities for improving policy impact
Jiang, N., Gill, E., Thorpe, L. E., Rogers, E. S., de Leon, C., Anastasiou, E., Kaplan, S. A. & Shelley, D., Dec 1 2021,
In : International journal of environmental research and public health. 18, 23, 12565.
Sexual risk reduction among non-injection drug users: Report of a randomized controlled trial
Castor, D., Pilowsky, D. J., Hadden, B., Fuller, C., Ompad, D. C., De Leon, C. L., Neils, G., Hoepner, L., Andrews, H. F., Latkin, C. & Hoover, D. R., Jan 2010,
In : AIDS Care - Psychological and Socio-Medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV. 22, 1, p. 62-70
9 p.
Impact of social network characteristics on high-risk sexual behaviors among non-injection drug users
Pilowsky, D. J., Hoover, D., Hadden, B., Fuller, C., Ompad, D. C., Andrews, H. F., De Leon, C. L., Hoepner, L., Xia, Q. & Latkin, C., Sep 2007,
In : Substance Use and Misuse. 42, 11, p. 1629-1649
21 p.
Selected Presentations
Young Women in Bio: Careers for Women, 2015
Panelist
The ACTION Project: Communicating and Negotiating the Use of the Female Condom
Presentation at the 2003 Annual Conference of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Women and HIV/AIDS Unit