Dr. Hernandez is Assistant Professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She completed training as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Southern California working in a National Institute of Mental Health-funded project examining the duration of untreated psychosis among Latinos. Her research interests are informed by her extensive clinical practice experience in community mental health settings and focus on mental health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. Dr. Hernandez received support from the National Institute of Mental Health for her research on the role of protective factors in outcomes among Latinos with schizophrenia and their families. In Fall 2017, she was awarded an NIAAA Diversity Supplement under parent grant R01 AA022924 (PI: Velasquez). The parent study is a randomized controlled trial testing tablet-delivery of CHOICES4Health, a behavioral health intervention targeting alcohol-, tobacco-, and marijuana-exposed pregnancy. Dr. Hernandez’s supplement study will examine potential cross-cultural differences in intervention outcomes and the process of behavior change by sociocultural variables including race/ethnicity, acculturation, mental health conditions, and by treatment delivery (person-delivered versus computer tablet-delivered) among women participating in the intervention.
