Yamalis Diaz, PhD

Yamalis Diaz, PhD, arrived in Project L/EARN with an academic track record that might discourage acceptance in many internship programs—a grade point average of 2.8 (C+). Accepted into the program on the recommendation of the faculty mentor who had taught her in a sociology course, Diaz took full advantage of the program. Under the direction of a Project L/EARN mentor—Kathleen Pottick (social work)—she wrote her summer paper on “The Effect of Insurance and Facility Ownership on Inpatient Length of Stay of Children and Adolescents With Serious Emotional Disturbance,” which became the basis for a conference presentation and published proceedings at the Annual Research Conference: A System of Care for Children’s Mental Health, co-authored with Pottick and current Project L/EARN co-director Jane Miller.

Diaz then worked as a postbaccalaureate research assistant at the Center for State Health Policy, becoming co-author on half a dozen papers and reports. She also worked as a teaching assistant for Project L/EARN. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Maryland, with full funding from a highly competitive National Research Service Award fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health. Her dissertation examined cultural values and parenting beliefs among Latino parents as a first step in a program aimed at culturally adapting empirically supported parent training programs to treat disruptive behavior problems in children. Diaz is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.