Erika Luis Sanchez and Jazzmyn S. Ward of the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at the Gevirtz School were given the 2019-20 Ray E. Hosford Award for Excellence in Clinical Dedication for their service at the Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic at UC Santa Barbara.
Sanchez is a doctoral student in clinical psychology working with Dr. Miya Barnett. She earned her bachelor’s in psychology from CSU San Marcos, where she worked on a study that investigated how socio-cultural stressors influenced the maladaptive behaviors of pregnant mothers of Mexican descent and how, in turn, these impact maternal and infant mental health. At San Diego State University, where she received her master’s in psychology, Sanchez worked on a project aimed at developing a personalized module for Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in order to improve treatment and engagement outcomes for families from diverse cultural backgrounds, a continued research interest. She is also interested in the role that socio-cultural factors play on mental health disparities among at-risk minority children and families, with an emphasis on the interplay among culture, parent-child interactions, and exposure to childhood adversity (e.g., stress, poverty, child maltreatment) on children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors problems.
Ward is a clinical psychology doctoral student working with Dr. Erika Felix. She double majored in psychology and criminology and minored in African American Studies at UC Irvine. She received her master’s in clinical psychology at CSU Northridge, where she studied community violence and ethnic racial socialization among marginalized populations. Ward’s general research interest is trauma exposure and its effects on mental health among marginalized populations, particularly in the Black community. She is also interested in resiliency and protective factors as well as program development and evaluation.
The Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic is a university-based community clinic that is designed to provide developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive, low-cost individual, couple, family, and group psychological treatment and testing/assessment services to people living within the central coast community. The Hosford Clinic serves as a training site for students in CCSP and as a clinical-research facility for the faculty and students of the CCSP Department. It also strives to provide educational, consultation, and training services to professional and paraprofessional clinicians and educators in the tri-counties.