This year the NCAL Mental Health Training Program was a proud sponsor of the student social hour at the National Latinx Psychological Association 2023 Conference, facilitating conversation and connection! One of the highlights of the conference itself was current doctoral intern at Kaiser Permanente-Richmond, Jacqueline Fuentes, receiving the distinguished 2023 Cynthia de las Fuentes Dissertation Award. This award will support Jacqueline in finishing her dissertation project through a generous donation of $750 from Dra. Cynthia de las Fuentes, who is APA President-Elect and a private practitioner in Austin, Texas. Jacqueline’s dissertation, El Derecho de Permanecer: Amplifying the Voices of Working-Class Latinas Experiencing Housing Displacement Induced via Gentrification, was deemed to meet the criteria of focusing on issues related to Latinx Psychology research and contributing in a substantive way to the advancement of knowledge related to Latinx Psychology.
Jacqueline completed her doctoral studies at the University of Georgia, and her dissertation pays homage to the critical intersectional insights she gained while working as a child welfare worker with families under the jurisdiction of juvenile dependency. Jacqueline hopes to provide our field with a timely and understudied inquiry by amplifying working-class Latinas’ experiences undergoing housing displacement via gentrification in Los Angeles County, challenging the dearth of attention to housing displacement among the Latine community, and challenging monolithic understandings of Latinas overall. We are so proud to highlight this amazing accomplishment for Jacqueline, and we look forward to all of your future contributions to the community and field of psychology.
