National Latino Behavioral Health Association: Improving Behavioral Health for Latino Populations

Professor @Department of Medicine & Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Chief @Disparities Research Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Alegría is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) of four National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research studies: Building Community Capacity for Disability Prevention in Minority Elders; Mechanisms Underlying Racial/ Ethnic Disparities in Mental Disorders; The Impact of Medicaid Plans on Access to and Quality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Treatment; and Building Infrastructure for Community Capacity in Accelerating Integrated Care. She is also the PI of a grant funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, entitled Using the Experience of Majority and Minority Status Through Photovoice. Dr. Alegría has published over 200 papers, editorials, intervention training manuals, and several book chapters, on topics such as improvement of health care services delivery for diverse racial and ethnic populations, conceptual and methodological issues with multicultural populations, and ways to bring the community’s perspective into the design and implementation of health services. In October 2011, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in acknowledgement of her scientific contributions to her field.

President & CEO of Bienvenido Community Solutions, LLC

Gilberto Perez Jr., is the President & CEO of Bienvenido Community Solutions, LLC, an educational health consulting organization that seeks to increase the positive mental health of the Latinx community, offer mental health promotion facilitator trainings, and assist university researchers for health disparities and mental health disparities research. Gilberto is the author and founder of the Bienvenido Program, a nationally recognized mental health promotion program for Latinx immigrants. The mental health promotion program has been implemented in 13 cities in Indiana and is available in 14 states across the U.S. Gilberto has also worked as a bilingual therapist and mental health administrator for over 18 years. Gilberto has also held a teaching position at Goshen College as associate professor of social work and also serves as a university administrator in the area of student life.