Claris Velez, M.S.

Claris earned an MS in Clinical Psychology from Palo Alto University and a BS in Neuroscience from Saint Mary's College of California. She is currently a senior research coordinator at the University of Miami's Child and Adolescent Mood and Anxiety Treatment Program, where she is working on a randomized control trial that is implementing an adapted evidence-based mental health intervention into culturally diverse, low resourced high schools. Claris' research interests include cultural adaptations of evidence-based mental health interventions, dissemination and implementation science, community-based participatory research, and any other research that assesses or promotes sustainable solutions to addressing racial and ethnic mental health disparities. In her free time, Claris enjoys cooking, crafting, and spending time with her senior rescue dogs Taco and Eri.

Representative Publications and Presentations

• St. George, S. M., Velez, C. V., Ahn, Y. A., Phillips, D. A., Pulgaron, E. R., & Ehrenreich- May, J. (Under Review). Community recommendations for adapting an evidence-based mental health intervention for racially/ethnically diverse schools: A qualitative study.

• Park, A. L., Torres Sanchez, A., Saifan, D., Velez, C. V., Letamendi, A., Stanick, C., Regan, J., Perez, G., Manners, D., & Chorpita, B. F. (Under Review). What does diversity mean to you? Perspectives from community mental health professionals.

• Velez, C. V., & Park, A. L. (In preparation). Exploring differences in QPOC-rated importance of evidence-based cultural adaptations.