Dr. Cuevas graduated in 1988 from Dartmouth College with a BA in Biology and Psychology.  He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology from the University of Miami in 1995 and received postdoctoral training at the University of Queensland, Australia, and at the University of California, San Diego. 

Dr. Javier Cuevas is the Sr. Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Affairs for USF Health and Sr. Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs for the Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM). Dr. Cuevas is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, MCOM, and served as Associate Chair of the department from 2016-2021. In his role as Sr. Assistant Vice President for Faculty and Academic Affairs, Dr. Cuevas is the primary liaison for USF Health with the USF Provost’s Office, the USF Office of Institutional Effectiveness, and the USF Office of Decision Support. Dr. Cuevas is responsible for the development and implementation of efforts to meet accreditation standards at the University of South Florida and for ensuring the collection and submission of data to fulfill all USF Board of Trustees and Florida Board of Governors reporting requirements, with particular focus on Health Colleges. In his faculty affairs role, Dr. Cuevas mentors numerous faculty members, focusing on clinician scientists and basic science faculty to help them advance in their research careers.

As an educator, Dr. Cuevas has been the course director for numerous graduate and medical courses at USF Health and won several awards as an educator, such as the Undergraduate Medical Education Program, Outstanding Sophomore Instructor Award, USFCOM. He is the director of the UME year 2 “Cardiology, Pulmonology, and Nephrology (CPR) (BMS 6042)” course that has been recognized several times as the Outstanding Pre-Clinical course under his leadership.

As a researcher, Dr. Cuevas has received over $5,000,000 in research grant funding from agencies such as the NIH, the Multiple Myeloma Foundation, the American Heart Association and biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies.  He has over 60 peer reviewed publications and these manuscripts have been cited over 2000 times.  Dr. Cuevas’ research currently focuses on developing new drugs for treating stroke at delayed time points and for reducing vascular dementia and was most recently funded by the NIH as a principal investigator to develop a new animal model of vascular cognitive impairment and dementia. 

Dr. Cuevas has also engaged in numerous service activities. He is currently a regular member of the NIH Acute Neural Injury and Epilepsy Study Section and was the President of the AHA Tampa Metro Board. For over 10 years, Dr. Cuevas was the director of a medical mission to Dilaire, Haiti that treated over 2400 patients per year. Students, residents and faculty from across USF Health colleges participated in this mission to deliver healthcare and public health interventions that helped improve the lives of people from this rural part of Haiti.