Dr. Cueva was born in Mt. Edgecumbe and mostly raised in Anchorage, although her father's family is from Tecolotlán (land of owls) and Momax, Mexico, while her mother's family has lived in Ontario, Canada for the last few hundred years. She is an Associate Professor at the Center for Alaska Native Health Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr. Cueva has a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and dual doctoral degrees from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Public Health Nutrition and in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her research interests include social determinants of health in the circumpolar North, culturally appropriate health promotion, community based participatory action research, and health equity. She currently serves on the board of the Alaska Public Health Association and is Alaska's representative on the governing council of the American Public Health Association.