Our Team

Claris Velez, M.S.

Claris (she/her) is a fourth-year clinical psychology doctoral student at the University of Oregon. Claris’s research primarily focuses on cultural adaptations of evidence-based mental health interventions for ethnic-racial minoritized youth and families. As a corollary to this, she is also interested in feasible, scalable implementation of culturally adapted interventions into settings that are more accessible for minoritized clients. Previously, Claris was a senior research coordinator at the University of Miami’s Child and Adolescent Mood and Anxiety Treatment Program, where she aided in organizing the implementation of an adapted evidence-based mental health intervention into Title I high schools serving low resourced, ethnic-racial minoritized youth. Claris earned her master's degree in clinical psychology from Palo Alto University and her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Saint Mary’s College of California. In her free time, Claris enjoys taking long walks outside with her senior rescue dog Taco, as well as cooking and baking with family and friends.

Representative Publications and Presentations

  • Park, A. L., Torres Sanchez, A., Saifan, D., Velez, C. V., Letamendi, A., Stanick, C., Regan, J., Manners, D., & Chorpita, B. F. (2024). What Does Diversity Mean to You? Perspectives from Community Mental Health Staff. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 1-10. 

  • St. George, S. M., Velez, C. V., Ahn, Y. A., Phillips, D. A., Pulgaron, E. R., & Ehrenreich-May, J. (2024). Community Recommendations for Adapting an Evidence-Based Mental Health Intervention for Racially/Ethnically Diverse Schools: A Qualitative Study. School mental health, 1-15. 

  • Velez, C. V., Campez-Pardo, M., Canovas, J. M., Pulgaron, E. R., Ahn, Y. A., Dale, C., Dale, S. K., Gwynn, L., Jensen-Doss, A., St. George, S. M., & Ehrenreich-May, J. (Under Review). Study protocol of a randomized trial of U-PEACE: An adapted transdiagnostic prevention program for diverse high school settings.   

  • Velez, C. V., & Park, A. L. (In preparation). Are all cultural adaptations appreciated equally? A study on perceived importance of cultural adaptations for QPOC.