Featured Psychologist
Steven R. López, PhD, of the University of Southern California (USC) School of Psychology and Social Work has worked to reduce health disparities in Latino communities, examining the unique course of the development of schizophrenia in Mexican-American and Anglo-American communities. López studies how improved cultural competence can localize mental health interventions, clinical evaluations and treatment in Latino communities and has worked to cultivate literacy about psychosis in Spanish-speaking communities.
López lived in Tucson, Ariz. and got his undergraduate degree in psychology, developing an interest in culture and ethnicity. He went on to become a rural mental health worker at a local mental health center before entering his doctoral program in clinical psychology at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has worked as a teacher and educator for more than 18 years. His line of research centers on culture, serious mental illness, families and intervention.
López is a professor of psychology and social work at USC, the director of USC's clinical psychology program, and the Minority Health international Research Training (MHIRT) program director. Over the last 25 years, he has focused directly on reducing disparities in mental health care for Latinos. With support from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), López and his colleagues have examined how family factors and possible sociocultural factors are associated with the course of schizophrenia for Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans (López et al., 2004). He has also examined how clinicians' considerations of culture might influence their clinical evaluations and treatment (López , 1989), and has developed a model of cultural competence to improve mental health interventions (López , 1997). NIMH is currently funding the operationalization of this model and its evaluation. In a third line of research, López, in collaboration with Lara and Kopelowicz, (López et al., 2009) has developed a community education program that increases Spanish-speaking persons' literacy with regard to psychosis.
Additionally, López has served in several national leadership positions focuesd on Latino mental health. López was one of five science editors for the "Surgeon General's Supplemental Report on Mental Health: Cultural, Race and Ethnicity" (Department of Health and Human Services, 2001), primarily responsible for writing the chapter on Latinos. With considerable experience in research training over his 10 years at USC and his 16 years at UCLA, López has received awards for his mentorship and teaching, including the UCLA psychology department's distinguished teaching award. He was also honored with the Evis Coda Award for Building Hope for Families due to his longtime leadership in advancing cultural competency in mental health service provision, specifically to Latinos.
Source: https://dornsife.usc.edu/labs/culture-and-mental-health/dr-lopez/opens in new window
Source: https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1016606opens in new window