David Lucas “Luke” Smith, M.D.
Luke Smith, M.D. is the executive director of El Futuro, a nonprofit behavioral health agency offering outpatient services to the Latino population in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. He is a practicing Spanish-bilingual psychiatrist who is boarded in child/adolescent and general psychiatry. In 2004, he led the creation of El Futuro in order to address the unmet need of bringing accessible behavioral health services to the growing Latino community in North Carolina. With steady growth and innovative funding approaches, El Futuro now serves approximately 1,700 individuals from 20 counties each year. He leads a staff of 44 people, with a comprehensive suite of licensed behavioral health providers trained in culturally-responsive, trauma-informed, and healing-engaged treatment approaches targeted to the Latino immigrant community. His work with El Futuro has gained attention around the state and been featured nationally in the New York Times and USA Today.
Additionally, Dr. Smith initiated the NC Latino Mental Health Provider Network (La Mesita) in 2017 to facilitate sharing culturally-responsive treatment practices and improving Latino mental health across North Carolina. This Network now has over 600 participating members, hosts monthly webinars, targeted Learning Cohorts, is an ECHO tele-case consultation replication partner site, and is in the process of developing a micro-credential in Culturally-Responsive Mental Health Treatment. Under Dr. Smith’s watch, El Futuro has maintained a careful focus on patient engagement and participated in successful multi-year community based projects funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
Alvely Alcántara, LCSW
Rossy C. Garcia, MEd 
Katy Sims, MD 
Everardo Aviles, LCSW, LCAS (Eve)
As a medical anthropologist and social work researcher, Dr. Gulbas’ research embodies interdisciplinarity through the integration of applied theories of health and human development with qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her work seeks to understand how people—children, families, and providers—navigate complex sociocultural landscapes in the pursuit of mental health. Most of her work, to date, focuses attention on developing more robust interpretations of suicide risk. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, this body of research has contributed to advancements in theoretical and empirical knowledge of the broader contexts within which youth suicide risk is situated. 
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez is a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the principal investigator of a study that examines the impact of immigration-related threat and stress on school communities. She earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first gen college student.
Dr. Parra-Cardona is an Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the SHSSW, he serves as Coordinator for Mexico and Latin American initiatives. He also serves as Area Director for Research at the UT Austin Latino Research Institute. Dr. Parra-Cardona’s program of research is focused on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based parenting interventions for low-income Latinx populations in the US and Latin America.
Bianka Reese, PhD, MSPH is a research scientist and program evaluator specializing in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her previous research in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her work as the Research and Evaluation Manager at SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led largescale evaluations of multilevel, community-based sexual health promotion initiatives and research projects aimed at elevating the voices of diverse youth in North Carolina. Dr. Reese is currently the Senior Research Strategist at Creative Research Solutions, LLC, an award-winning national evaluation, research, and assessment firm.
Tania Connaughton-Espino, MPH is an independent researcher focused on adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her interest in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her previous work with SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led the training and evaluation department, conducted capacity-building workshops for youth serving professionals including on the topic of how to be more affirming of LGBTQ youth, and from her extensive experience working with the Latinx population in NC.
Maru Gonzalez, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her areas of inquiry include youth development with a focus on activism, social justice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people across familial, school, and community contexts. 
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD