Sandra Elizabeth Luna Sánchez, PhD, was awarded a 2019 APA Presidential Citation for her work on understanding and empowering all people in Latin America, especially in her home country of Guatemala, has helped reconceptualize gender roles both for men and women.
Sánchez has emphasized the important role of culture in determining both the traditional and emerging roles, especially of women. In her clinical work, Sánchez has worked tireless and fearlessly on behalf of traumatized individuals in where gender roles where maladaptive. Further, she has worked courageously in helping Latin American society to reconceptualize healthier gender roles.
Of additional significance has been her devoted effort to expand the horizons of the Society of Interamerican Psychology. Through emphasis on representing all of the Americas, Dr. Luna has envisioned a psychology where language and culture add to the beauty, robustness and promise of psychology in the Americas. Travelling constantly throughout the Americas and representing all psychology through diplomacy and engagement, Sánchez has moved psychology in the Americas and the Society of Interamerican Psychology (SIP) to new heights.
The Presidential Citation was given to Sánchez, President of SIP, at its Congress of Interamerican Psychology on July 15, 2019, in La Habana, Cuba.