Featured Psychologist
Casas provides clinical neuropsychological services to patients with various types of brain injury. Her specific expertise is in neuropsychological assessment of cultural and linguistic minorities, including patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Casas' research interests focus broadly on the cultural contributions to cognition and brain development. Casas identifies as a scientist-activist and has experience communicating research findings to local, state and federal legislators. She has spent time working on Capitol Hill as the 2009 Dalmas A. Taylor Summer Minority Policy Fellow and is currently a trustee for the California Psychological Association's Political Action Committee.
Casas received her bachelor's degree in psychology from California State University, going on to complete her pre-doctorial internship in clinical psychology at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California in Los Angeles. Afterwards, she completed her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Iowa. Casas completed one post-doctoral research fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the University of California, Los Angeles and a second post-doctoral fellowship in culture, neuroscience and psychosis with the University of Southern California. Presently, Casas is an assistant professor at California Lutheran University.
Her postdoctoral work is funded by a fellowship in interdisciplinary studies of culture and neuroscience from the Foundation for Psychocultural Research. Previously, Casas has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation's graduate research fellowship program and the APA's diversity program in neuroscience. In addition to her research, Casas' leadership experience includes election to the three-year chair cycle of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students, the largest organization of graduate students in psychology worldwide. She has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the APA and as a liaison to the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology.