Dr. Vélez-Ortega is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She received an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from the EIA University in Colombia, a master's degree in Biology (with emphasis in Immunobiology) from the University of Antioquia in Colombia, and a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Kentucky.
The Velez Laboratory studies endogenous mechanisms of protection against noise-induced hearing loss and the molecular machinery involved in the activity-dependent remodeling of the cytoskeleton within the auditory sensory organelles (i.e. the hair cell stereocilia bundles).