Dr. Ana Karen Talavera Peña holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, which she earned with honors from the Facultad de Estudios Superiores Zaragoza, and a Ph.D. in Psychology and Health from the Programa de Maestría y Doctorado en Psicología at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. In January 2022, she joined the Sistema Nacional de Investigadoras e Investigadores (SNII) as a Candidate (2022–2025) and was recently promoted to Level I (2026–2030).

Since 2020, she has served as a full-time associate professor at the Lerma Campus of the UAM, where she has taught more than 50 courses, in addition to directing and advising 54 undergraduate theses and 3 graduate theses. Additionally, she has been responsible for 6 social service projects with the participation of 21 students.

From 2020 to 2022, she served as Coordinator of Studies for the Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Psychology, and currently (2022–2026) holds the position of Academic Secretary of the Division of Biological and Health Sciences.

Her scholarly output includes 18 articles as author and/or co-author in nationally and internationally indexed journals, 10 of which appear in journals listed in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) with impact factors ranging from 2.2 to 5.7; as well as 7 peer-reviewed book chapters with ISBN registration, 3 of which were published by Springer Nature.

Her research lines include the assessment of psychosocial risk factors, the effectiveness of psychological intervention programs, and the psychophysiological response to stress. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research project in collaboration with the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

The results of her research have been presented at national and international conferences, as well as in public science communication spaces, such as radio programs, interviews, and digital and print media publications. The significance of her work lies in addressing mental health from a scientific perspective, and her main contribution consists of developing evidence-based psychological intervention programs.