Research

Broadly speaking, my research focuses on scientifically-informed clinical practice that aims to reduce health disparities. Although I have done work in the area of romantic relationships and sexually explicit media use, my research over time has focused increasingly on examining the interplay between culture, mental health, and service utilization. As a whole, my goal is to understand and ameliorate factors that interfere with vulnerable and underserved diverse groups initiating help seeking, remaining in treatment, and obtaining benefits from therapy. I have worked to establish ties with local agencies in Northwest Arkansas who serve some of the most vulnerable groups in society, including people living in poverty, recent immigrants, victims of domestic violence, and prisoners. These ties have been mutually beneficial; they simultaneously enhance my research program and create opportunities for clinical training, outreach, and service.

I have published with colleagues and students in numerous scientific journals, including Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Families, Systems, and Health, Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, Psychological Services, and Journal of Latina/o Psychology. My work has also been funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Verizon Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.

Teaching

My teaching philosophy is that good instruction is founded on a good relationship with students, one of mutual respect and honesty, and that learning should be interactive, applied, and titrated in difficulty. As such, my courses include numerous opportunities for participation and application in a series of increasingly challenging activities, so foundational knowledge can be acquired and then applied in increasingly sophisticated ways. For instance, each semester students in my undergraduate psychological testing course develop a psychological test, administer it to a large group of people, and evaluate its psychometric properties. This allows students to develop a full appreciation for diverse aspects of testing, including construct explication, item generation, data collection, data analyses, and interpretation of reliability and validity coefficients.

At the graduate level, I teach courses in assessment of intellectual and cognitive abilities, multivariate statistics, and occasionally a special seminars topic. I also supervise second-year clinical students in our Assessment practicum course. At the undergraduate level, I teach courses in psychological testing and abnormal psychology.

Clinical Supervision

I provide clinical supervision both at our on-campus training clinic and at off-campus community placements. As with teaching, my philosophy of supervision is that learning and development as a therapist comes first and foremost from a solid relationship with a trusted licensed professional, second from strong didactic instruction, and third from opportunities to practice. Clinical experiences are titrated in difficulty and account for the development of trainees, starting with opportunities for shadowing and observation and moving towards increased independence over time. I like to conduct live observation of trainees when possible in order to provide accurate and comprehensive feedback. While students may find this a bit anxiety provoking at first, most appreciate the security and comfort of knowing that when I say their clinical work is high quality, I speak from direct knowledge.

I serve as the primary supervisor for students completing their third-year clerkship at Community Clinic, a local federally qualified primary health care center. I also supervise graduate students who are conducting group therapy for sexual trauma victims at Northwest Arkansas Community Correction Center. In the past, I have served as the primary supervisor at Peace at Home, the local domestic violence shelter, and have provided ad-hoc supervision for students seeking other external clinical opportunities when licensed psychologists were not part of the care team.

Service

Using my skills and expertise to help others is a central part of my professional identity. My service activities include departmental, college, and university committee work, as well as service to local organizations. At the department level, in addition to being the director of the clinical training committee (DCT), I am the founder and chair of the diversity committee. We seek to monitor and improve the department's climate of inclusivity and respect for all its citizens.

At the college and university levels, I am part of a research task force for the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the college personnel committee. At the local level, I have been a member of the board of directors for Peace at Home family shelter and have consulted with local organizations regarding mental health issues for Latino residents of the Northwest Arkansas area.

At the professional level, I served as an editorial board member for Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and Journal of Latinx Psychology and serve on an ad-hoc basis as a reviewer for numerous other professional journals. I have also served as the chair of the Hispanic Issues in Behavior Therapy Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.