Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD, is recognized with this APA Citizen Psychologist Citation for her exemplary leadership and service in immigrant communities.
Chavez-Dueñas has expanded upon her professional interests, which include Latina/o Mental Health, immigration, unaccompanied minors and race relations, through her grassroots participation and organizing leadership with various immigrant organizations including the Illinois Youth Justice League (IYJL). Over the past decade, she served as an advisor, contributor and supporter of this community-based group. In collaboration with members of IYJL, Chavez-Dueñas was instrumental in supporting the first National Coming Out of the Shadows Rally, which was held in Chicago in March of 2010. Eight years later, the National Coming Out of the Shadows event led to undocumented youth boldly declaring being “undocumented and unafraid” while advocating for human rights and immigrant rights. Today, this important human rights and advocacy event has grown, and now takes place all around the country. Most impressive is that several of the DREAMers, who spearheaded the U.S. immigration policy titled, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) originated from the IYJL group. In addition to the national visibility, success and impact of the IYJL group, DREAMers from the IYJL group, co-founded a not-for-profit organization led by students and the immigrant community in Chicago called, The Anhelo Project, which Chavez-Dueñas has supported financially for the last several years. The organization supports undocumented high school, undergraduate, and graduate students by raising funds to further the education of DREAMers who are leaders in their communities.
Because of Chavez-Dueñas’ unwavering passion and effective advocacy for the rights of undocumented youth and immigrants in Chicago, she is often asked to provide workshops in the community. For example, she provides pro bono workshops and trainings to the office of the Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago.
More recently, Chavez-Dueñas helped mobilize academicians and supported universities across the country to utilize the resources of the academy to collect goods for survivors of Hurricane Maria after it devastated the island of Puerto Rico, as well as for the victims of the earthquake in Mexico, where she has taken students to support Indigenous communities in need.
Chavez-Dueñas and her colleague, Hector Adames, have created vital open-access tools and resources for the immigrant community. For example, soon after DACA was rescinded, she co-authored and published a resource titled, “Surviving & Resisting: Defending DACA a Toolkit for DREAMers,” which is now used throughout many college campuses and communities. This free toolkit provides practical ways undocumented youth can cope with the current xenophobic climate. She has also co-authored and published a toolkit for mixed-status families titled, “Mixed Status Immigrant Families in Times of Fear and Uncertainty: A Toolkit for Parents.” These toolkits have been circulated on various social media channels and have gained attention from several Spanish news outlets.
Chavez-Dueñas received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 2008, in the Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology Track. She is an associate professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP), where she serves as the faculty coordinator for the concentration in Latina/o Mental Health in the counseling psychology department and the co-director of the IC-RACE Lab (Immigration Critical Race And Cultural Equity Lab) in the Clinical-Counseling Psychology Program. Chavez- Dueñas is the associate editor of Latina/o Psychology Today; and co-author of a textbook that focuses on skin-color and group differences among Latino/as in the U.S. titled, "Cultural Foundations and Interventions in Latino/a Mental Health: History, Theory and within Group Differences" by Routledge Press. She is also the co-author of an upcoming book titled, "Race and Colorism in Latino Communities: Towards a Racially Conscious Understanding of Latinxs", published by Rowman & Littlefield. Her research focuses on colorism, skin-color differences, parenting styles, immigration, unaccompanied minors, multiculturalism and race relations. She has earned a number of awards including the 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Multicultural Pedagogy by TCSPP.