Dr. Rodriguez is Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Pediatrics, and Medicine at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine. She is a key investigator on major PHRI projects including the Search for Diabetes in Youth Study (Principal Investigator) and the Honolulu Heart Program and related projects. Her primary areas of research are diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. She has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers.

Dr. Rodriguez earned her M.P.H. and Ph.D. in Community Health Sciences (Epidemiology) from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health. She also did a postdoctoral fellowship in CVD epidemiology at the Southwest Center for Prevention Research in Houston. She received her medical degree from the Tecnologico de Monterrey, in Monterrey, Mexico. She is President of the American Heart Association Hawaii Affiliate;  Board member of the National American Heart Association;  and Fellow of the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism and the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention of the American Heart Association.