Margarita Alegría, PhD, Chief of the Disparities Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Mongan Institute, the Harry G. Lehnert, Jr. and Lucille F. Cyr Lehnert Endowed Chair at the Mass General Research Institute, and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, will present “From Policy to Practice: Addressing Latinx Mental Health Disparities at All Levels,” for the Dean’s Lecture Series hosted by Duke University School of Nursing on October 12, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. (ET) in the Christine Pearson Building, Room 1014, and virtually via Zoom. Registration is required for attendance in-person and via Zoom.

In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, Dr. Alegría will provide the basis for understanding what complex factors contribute to mental health disparities in the Latinx community, bringing a special focus to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. She will also share research from her NIH-funded clinical trials that tested interventions to improve mental health and substance use outcomes within the Latinx population and in multiple care settings.

“Dr. Alegría is a widely recognized and cited national leader in addressing mental health disparities for communities of color,” said Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, RN, ANP-BC, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, Dean, Duke University School of Nursing, and Vice Chancellor, Nursing Affairs, Duke University. “I am honored that she will be joining us to share insight into her current research and how we as health care leaders can continue to transform health care for underserved populations.”

About the Speaker

Dr. Margarita Alegría has spent her career examining how to reduce health disparities for populations of color, immigrants, and linguistic minorities. She is currently the principal investigator (PI) of three National Institutes of Health funded research studies: Building Infrastructure for Community Capacity in Accelerating Integrated Care, Building Community Capacity for Disability Prevention for Minority Elders, and Latino Youths Coping with Discrimination: A Multi-Level Investigation in Micro-and Macro-Time. She is also PI of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant assessing opportunities to establish institutional, policy and systemic changes to increase racial/ethnic diversity in academic health sciences.

She has published over 300 papers, editorials, and intervention training manuals, and several book chapters. In October 2011, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in acknowledgement of her scientific contributions to her field.

Dr. Alegría obtained her B.A. in Psychology from Georgetown University in 1978 and her PhD from Temple University in 1989.

Registration is required for attendance in-person and via Zoom.