I was born in Mexico City and raised in Cuernavaca, Morelos. As a child, when I wasn’t on the soccer field, I was dreaming on the basketball court. My diet growing up consisted of, but was not limited to, Lucas, Miguelito, and Chamoy. After graduating from high school, I moved to San Antonio, the city where I became a serious Spurs basketball fan and studied psychology. Today, I am an Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco, a lover of Inca and Xoloitzcuintle dogs, and a proud godmother known by her niece and nephew as “nina.” My personal and professional areas of interests are antiracism, abolition feminism, and trauma responsiveness.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT MY PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS
I am an associate professor at USF’s Counseling Psychology Department and the founder of On the Margins. I work in the areas of Latinx mental health, antiracism, migrant justice, and trauma-responsive care. My program of research has focused on understanding how Latinx communities heal from trauma and use specific strategies to access positive health. Grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT; Crenshaw, 1989), I use critical and political methodological approaches in reaction to one-size-fits-all traditional paradigms of doing research, assessment, and evaluation. My most recent publications encourage psychologists to distance themselves from the Eurocentric epistemologies that dominate the field of psychology today, and to move toward a critical race epistemology that understands knowledge as being shaped by membership in multiple subordinated groups and interlocking systems of oppression.
RECENT AWARDS
LICENSES
Licensed Psychologist, Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists
License Number: 37364
Licensed Psychologist, California Board of Psychology
License Number: 29367
National Register Health Service Psychologist
Approval Date: 9/7/2016
Licensed Professional Counselor, Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors
License Number: 67869